MWC2013: ‘Regulators are stupid’ and other quotes

This article was authored by John C. Tanner, and was originally posted on telecomasia.net.

And now, a random collection of golden quotes heard at last week’s Mobile World Congress:
1. “Regulatory intervention in the mobile ecosystem is wrong and stupid.”

– Deutsche Telekom chief Rene Obermann, who didn’t mince words in his criticism of EU regulation policies, from cutting mobile termination rates and imposing taxes to spectrum allocation policies designed to make money for the government, whilst failing to hold OTT players to the same rules.

2. “3G changed our industry. 4G will change everyone’s industry.”

– AT&T chair and CEO Randall Stephenson on how enterprise customers are keen to leverage 4G for their business operations.

3. “There is no cloud.”

– Drew Houston, founder and CEO of Dropbox, explaining the POV of Dropbox users who don’t know and don’t care how Dropbox works, so long as it’s easy to use and they can get their stuff on any device.

4. “As Bob Marley would say, ‘No network, no cloud, mon’.” 

– Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson highlights the growing understanding that cloud services depend on the capabilities of operator networks to deliver an optimal experience, which means networks will be a key differentiator for cloud services.

5. “Apple’s ecosystem is so closed that it’s created the need for the change we’re here to provide.”

– Jolla chief executive Marc Dillon, on how the days of the closed OS are numbered as open operating systems like Jolla’s Sailfish – as well as rival OSs like Firefox and Ubuntu – rise to offer consumers more choice and freedom in where they get mobile apps and content.

6. “I’m an alien here.”

– KT chief executive Suk-chae Lee, prefacing his keynote address by pointing out that his background isn’t in telecoms. (It’s in economics and government.)

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