BRUSSELS, Oct 8 (Reuters) - AT&T Inc Chief ExecutiveRandall Stephenson on Tuesday said that he sees a "hugeopportunity for somebody" in Europe to invest in mobilebroadband and reap the big profits already being generated fromsuch services in the United States.
Stephenson, who has been exploring opportunities for AT&T toexpand into Europe, said Europe has the potential to be"incredibly exciting" during his appearance at an industryconference held by ETNO, the European telecommunications lobby.
However, the executive said that Europe needs to make bigchanges to its mobile spectrum policy in order to spur muchneeded investments in networks there.
"I continue to be fascinated and impressed by how slowmobile broadband is moving in Europe. So I think of this as ahuge opportunity for somebody," said Stephenson.
AT&T has been eyeing Europe since the beginning of the year,and has considered options including pan-European playerVodafone and Britain's largest mobile carrier EE, ajoint venture of Orange and Deutsche Telekom, according to sector bankers.
But Stephenson told the audience of lobbyists, regulatorsand investors that Europe need to overhaul its regulatorypolicies on spectrum in order to realize its potential.
For example he said, it would be easier for telecomoperators in Europe to invest in their networks if they wereable to buy long-term spectrum licenses and if spectrum policieswere similar across the region's different countries.
"I know most of the CEOs here and they are pretty smartpeople who like to earn money for their shareholders. So if theinvestment case were there they would be doing more," Stephensonsaid. "There will need to be a regulatory re-think."
Europe's 28 member states still sell mobile licenses countryby country and there is little standardization on the bandsused, complicating the process of rolling out networks andpreventing cross-border usage. Smartphones often need differentchipsets to be able to work in different European markets, forexample. In contrast, the operators in the US buy nationallicenses to serve a massive market of nearly 315 million people.
Vodafone (VOD)
