John Stankey, AT&T President, Chief Operating Officer and WarnerMedia CEO, recently sat down with Andy Serwer of Yahoo! Finance’s Influencers program to discuss a range of topics, including the wireless landscape, our nationwide 5G rollout and the launch of HBO Max in May.

To see the entire interview, click here*. 

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2:23 – Our continued focus following the T-Mobile/Sprint merger.

“We sit in a really good position in the industry. Our spectrum position is in great shape … we’ve been executing on the spectrum that we have in place for many months and feel good about our transition into 5G and our leadership there. And we’re going to continue to push on that dynamic and I feel like we’re going to be in a really good position as we run our plays and execute moving forward in a combination of our network strategy and how we start bringing content and entertainment into the offering for consumers.”

4:15 – Defining AT&T’s North Star.

“We want to provide incredibly reliable and competitive connectivity to our customers. And I believe our viewpoint of what is occurring in the industry is that, as connectivity is becoming more ubiquitous … you need to differentiate on top of that and our approach to differentiation will be what we can do to provide a great customer experience so that connectivity is global on wherever they go.”

5:53 – How 5G will transform the business and consumer industries.

“Early on it’ll very much be an enterprise play. We’re already seeing those kinds of use cases pop up in the medical industry and manufacturing. And I think you’re going to see the dynamics that occur on autonomous vehicles and what starts to happen from an enabling perspective on that … and on the consumer side, augmented reality and virtual reality will be enabled by 5G … when you start thinking about gaming and how content might move into gaming and bringing social dynamics around it, 5G and allowing it to be untethered as you’re consuming that content anywhere, I think brings in interesting possibilities.”

12:00 – Thoughts on traditional cable versus streaming.

“People want to sit down and watch The Bachelor because it has some social relevance and some momentary unveiling that makes it relevant. I think the traditional pay-tv product still has a space for that and will continue to be viable for a long period of time. As a result, that’s the most efficient way for people to see that kind of content and programming. We want to be in both spaces, and we want a product that ultimately merges together, and I think we’re incredibly well-positioned to do that.”

16:00 – WarnerMedia integration creates new advertising opportunities with HBO Max.

“This year is about seeing some of the advertising synergies that we expected to show up but, more importantly, about using the combined capabilities of AT&T and WarnerMedia to offer new products and services. And the innovation and customer choice that will come with HBO Max and the foundation of that as a platform … will be great for the industry and the consumer.”