We had an opportunity to sit down with AT&T's Ralph de la Vega last week -- one of the most influential individuals in the wireless world today -- at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona for a nice little chat covering all the topics that have been burning in our minds the last few months: Android, the Pre, LTE, and more. Read on!

We just spoke with AT&T's Ralph de la Vega who says that he's been misquoted about Dell's rumored aspirations to enter the smartphone market. As we suspected might be the case, he claims he'd been referring to the fact that he'd heard rumors of a Dell phone -- you know, the same rumors we've all been hearing -- and was simply commenting on that fact. Either that, or there's a Dell smartphone running some futuristic S60 / Android hybrid in his pocket as we speak... one of the two.

Dell hasn't made an announcement, but it turns out that CEOs love spilling each others' secrets -- and to that end, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has just mentioned during a Mobile World Congress panel that Dell has "announced they're entering the smartphone market." Maybe he got a bit confused about the announcement date or time -- or perhaps he's confusing the countless rumors with official details -- but either way, all eyes should be on Round Rock, Texas for the next few hours (or days, or weeks, or months) to see if anything shakes out.

There's been a flurry of chatter over a rumor that AT&T's Ralph de la Vega, CEO of the company's Mobility and Consumer markets announced that the carrier would be releasing an Android-based phone in the near future. We'd love to be able to confirm that info, but according to an article just published on the San Francisco Chronicle's site, de la Vega has feelings that seem to run quite contrary to the sentiment. According to the paper:

"De la Vega said AT&T continues to look at Google's Android operating system but is not prepared to make any moves to carry any Android phones. He said the platform is still evolving and needs to open up even more to offer a wider array of non-Google applications."

As much as we want to see this thing happen, it looks like the boys at AT&T aren't feeling Google's insistence on intrinsically linking devices to its web apps. Haven't you heard guys? The future is in the cloud. Oh, and open.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

There's not exactly a lot of details to go on here (or any, really), but AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega has just confirmed during an interview at the Web 2.0 Summit that an AT&T-approved iPhone tethering option will indeed be available "soon." That lack of detail includes any word on pricing or, of course, an actual release date, though MacRumors is reporting separately that it's hearing the tethering capability will be built into the 2.2 firmware, which seems like at least a reasonable guess.

[Via MacRumors]

The folks over at Computerworld just ran the current 3G providers in America through their paces, only to discover that AT&T came out on top in almost every category. Well, it appears the monolithic telco plans to keep its edge (er...) on the competition -- by upping its HSPA service to a whopping 20Mbps come 2009. Our main man Ralph de la Vega said that the process wouldn't require a major overhaul to the provider's infrastructure, and that they're already working on punching up the current 3.6Mbps speeds to 7.2Mbps "in the labs." Apparently, this won't stall plans for forthcoming 4G / 700MHz / LTE service from the company -- it'll just be icing on the cake.

Read - Which 3G network is the best?
Read - AT&T plans 20-megabit 3G by 2009

Sure, Ralph de la Vega was chatty at yesterday's AT&T luncheon during CTIA, but with the scattered reports you've probably seen, it's hard to keep tabs on it all. On the topic of Android -- the Google OS which the company had been reluctant to make a definitive ruling on -- de la Vega seemed to soften up to the possibility. According to the exec, meetings with the search giant have reassured him that carriers will be able to equip handsets with their own applications, not just Google's tools. "That's attractive to us. We were concerned that maybe the focus was just on Google apps," he said. Of course, other than vague pleasantries about the possibilities of the operating system, de la Vega wasn't concrete about actual Android phones in the pipeline, saying, "If it's good for customers we'll offer it like any other OS." Bottom line? They're not exactly storming into the OHA, but if they see something they like, they won't look the other way.

[Thanks, bdawg]

At AT&T's press feast today, the focus was unquestionably the trial deployment of Microsoft's Surface kiosks to stores later this month -- the presence of Microsoft's own Robbie Bach was testament to that fact. But there was more to the action by the time the show was over. Deployment of 3G and 4G services was a hot topic both during CEO Ralph de la Vega's presentation and in the post-conference Q&A (one member of the press lamented the fact that AT&T's BlackBerrys still lack HSDPA), and at one point he mentioned that all of the carrier's smartphones would be 3G within a matter of mere "months."

We figure that instantly thrusts several devices onto (and off of) AT&T's roadmap in the very near future, including a 3G iPhone and the BlackBerry 9000 we recently saw strutting its stuff. Of course, that would also preclude the just-introduced Palm Centro from hanging around for very long, since it tops out with EDGE speeds; last time we checked Garnet had a hard time handling HSDPA, so something's got to give. We're not writing the obit just yet -- CEOs' statements are often a mere shadow of reality, after all -- but it's certainly food for thought.

Who'd have thought the end of 2007 would see US cellphone carrier heavyweights duking it out with PR one-upsmanship to be... open? Seriously, someone pinch us, it's as amazing as it is farcical. So the latest development in big network "openness" has USA Today running off in the opposite direction with AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega's comments that "You can use any handset on our network you want... We don't prohibit it, or even police it. ... We are the most open wireless company in the industry." We think the headline "AT&T flings cellphone network wide open" kind of says it all.

The reality of the situation? Nothing has changed between yesterday and today, and, as de la Vega told us a couple of weeks ago, AT&T customers can continue expect the status quo from the nation's largest carrier in terms of their level of openness and flexibility. Granted, it's one thing for Verizon to say they're going wide open (especially being ridiculously closed CDMA carrier they are), but it's quite another for AT&T to lay claims as though it's somehow more open than any other carrier in the world when that argument comes as an extension of its core network technology. Yes, you can take your AT&T SIM, put it in an unlocked device, and run it on their network without much hassle -- but that doesn't make AT&T any more "open" than the final-say testing facility Verizon intends to use in "openly" making approvals (and disapprovals) of devices and software.

[Thanks, epi117]

We recently got a chance to sit down with none other than long time AT&T veteran and freshly anointed CEO of the top wireless carrier in the country, Ralph de la Vega. There was almost too much to discuss, but we were able to get his take on Android and the Open Handset Alliance (specifically, why AT&T isn't a part of it -- yet), the 700MHz spectrum auction in January, their groundbreaking partnership with Apple, and the many reasons the US wireless market does and doesn't seem to suck so badly. Basically, anyone who gives a damn about cellphones or wireless needs to hear what this man has to say.

Thank you very much for meeting with us.

It's my pleasure. My pleasure!

So I am really curious to know what device you carry.

I switch devices every few weeks. Because I think that I need to try the latest device as my customers are trying them, so you'll see me switching. I have now the latest Blackberry, the 8820 with WiFi -- the latest one that came out. When I go back to my office, I have a Q sitting on my desk and my biggest difficulty is making the switch because they each work a little bit different. And so, I punish myself to learn them just because I feel I need to try the devices that my customers are trying. So I've got a whole stack of them and as I get time I just take out the SIM and put the new one in and I go. Because I think that's my duty.

That's actually a pretty admirable way of approaching it, but in terms of preference though, if you could just pick one, what would it be?

Well for business today, the BlackBerry is my preference. For entertainment, the iPhone has no equal. You know, if I'm taking something on a personal vacation that takes my music and my videos, then the iPhone just has no equal.

I'm curious to know if you could tell me a little bit about the role that you played in bringing Apple to AT&T. Starting up their whole deal, getting the iPhone on AT&T -- you know, where you sat.

At the time I was the Chief Operating Officer of Cingular Wireless. I was leading the team that met with Apple to figure out how we could make this work and it was a very, very exciting time. We actually started our relationship with Apple way before the iPhone, but a lot of people have never written about that. And that relationship started when we launched the ROKR, which was the first phone with iTunes -- made by Motorola but certified by us, put into the network with iTunes, which was the first [cellphone] in the country that had iTunes capability. We always viewed that would be something that our customers would want, and the reason we even got started was because all of the philosophy we have, that if the customer wants their music from iTunes, we ought to let them have it from iTunes.