Transcript 0:00 [upbeat music] Welcome back to the Peggy Smedley Show, the podcasting voice of IoT and digital transformation. Hello everyone. 0:12 We are coming back to you live from CES 2020, and I am very excited because I am sitting next to Mo Katibeh from AT&T. Mo, welcome to the show. Great seeing you. 0:24 So this is the first time you've been on the Peggy Smedley Show. I- it is. Why did it take this long? I don't know, Mo, but now you are here, so I'm excited. Yes. 0:31 So now what I'm excited about, because you are the chief marketing officer at AT&T Business, and so we've got a lot to talk about today. So- I can't wait... 0:40 I know I've got a whole half an hour with you, so you know a half an hour means I have a lot of questions. I, I can imagine. You know, and so we're gonna get right to it. So first of all- Yes... 5G. Yes. 0:49 I'm getting right to it. I'm not holding back. Yeah. It's a big year for 5G. It is. 0:54 I've been getting a lot of questions from a lot of people, but I want you to tell me what do you think 5G means here with this new decade? Great question. So we're at CES. 1:07 You only have to walk around CES- [laughs] Yes... for like two minutes- It's everywhere... before you see 5G being referenced, right, in big, shiny lights. 1:15 And you know, I think the, the reason why 5G, um, really is gonna take off in 2020 is this is the year that consumers will really begin to feel 5G. 1:28 Um, for AT&T, by the middle part of this year, we're gonna have deployed our 5G service nationwide. Think of that to more than 200 mil- million people across America. 1:39 And as you're walking around the show, you're seeing more and more devices in the ecosystem really embracing 5G, enabling those devices to be able to use 5G, and then move forward from there. 1:50 Um, and so, you know, that, that's really the reason why it's an exciting year. Is it gonna really be a game changer- Yeah... like everybody talks about? I mean, I, I'm saying it is. Mm-hmm. 2:02 And, and it's kind of funny because I have had a lot of people on social media give me a lot of grief because I keep saying, as someone who's been following IoT for a long time, and they're like, "Peggy, you keep saying it's a game changer." 2:13 But when I look at following it from 2G to 3G to 4G- Yes... and I see what manufacturing's gonna be able to do, in my mind, I see it, but I'm an outsider looking in. I take a 30,000-foot overview. Right. 2:25 And you're the man who's gonna be able to say that. Do you believe that? I do. And so let's take a moment and just talk about, you know, why it's a game changer. You know, how is it different in terms of, uh, technology? 2:36 So you know, a lot of people when they think about, you know, LTE, 3G, it's really about smartphones, right? It's about this device that has enabled incredible experiences in all of our lives over the last 10 years. 2:47 But 5G is not just about smartphones and speed. 2:51 Of course, it's gonna enable significantly faster downloads, more throughput for everybody, but it's also about creating low latency experiences, and my absolute favorite is the ability to drive mass connectivity. 3:05 So think of that as, you know, today, you know, Wi-Fi enables about 250 connections per access point. In LTE, you get into the thousands, and with 5G, it's, you know, the, the limits are the millions. 3:19 So when you think about mass connectivity, uh, and how will it change the world, well, this is the decade in... 3:28 that we're gonna build on the smartphone, evolve beyond the smartphone, and all of us as consumers are gonna start seeing the connectivity of everything in our lives. So let's talk about manufacturing. 3:39 You brought that up, and do I think that, you know, that's a industry that's gonna be, uh, impacted? Well, c- can I- Yeah... have you step back just for, for- Sure... 3:46 we probably have a lot of people viewing and listening who aren't my traditional- Right... listeners or viewers. Take just one step back quickly for the mass connectivity concept. Yeah. 3:55 For someone who says, "What does that really mean?" Yeah. Can you, can you walk us through when you... I, it sounds simple enough, but help explain that. Absolutely. 4:03 So I mean, I think everyone's been to some sort of venue or stadium where historically, um, they may have seen bars, and they were like, "But I can't connect. I can't upload my photo. I can't make a call. 4:14 My text's not going through." That is a function of the sheer number of connections that are being made to that LTE or that 4G access point. That is why connectivity matters. 4:26 This is why this transition from thousands to millions of concurrent connections can fundamentally reshape the way that all of us live our everyday lives as well as the way that businesses can think through, "How do I make my workers safer? 4:41 How do I drive a more efficient business, you know, take costs out? How do I create new revenue or new experiences for my end customers?" It is this mass connectivity. 4:51 So you know, the example I always love is, um, I've got two kids, a five-year-old and a nine-year-old, and you know, every morning they brush their teeth. 4:59 And, um, it's not unreasonable to think that in the coming years, we're already seeing connected toothbrushes hit the market, that there will be connected toothbrushes that will analyze elements in your saliva, in your mouth, go look for a matching signature over the network because they're connected, and then with voice be able to tell you, "Hey, uh, you have a cold today. 5:22 Uh, you're not going to school." And then I can see my children, you know, arguing with Mr. Toothbrush, right? [laughs] "No, I don't have a cold. I'm good to go to school." 5:30 Um, you know, one of my friends likes to talk about the connected fork, right? New Year, a lot of people are on resolutions of trying to lose weight. 5:38 What if your fork counted your calories that you were consuming as part of everyday dining experiences? This is the connectivity of all things. Let me tell you, I don't want any connected c- fork- No?... 5:50 counting my calories. No? Maybe not. Maybe. I don't know. But- I, I'll tell you, I'm gonna buy one. [laughs] I, I'm all for it.I'm not sure ah I really want that last scoop of ice cream now. [laughs] Yes. Yeah, exactly. 6:02 Yeah, right? But go back now to the manufacturing- Yes... concept because everybody talks about a manufacturing, you just need that 2G, you know, you really don't need... 6:10 But I see so much more with why 5G is going to change- Yes... in IoT and manufacturing that most manufacturers don't even realize how beneficial this is going to be for them. Exactly. 6:24 Um, i- I'll give you some real examples of use cases that we've either deployed or we're in the middle of doing proof of concepts with, with real manufacturers. Um, the first one is, you know, worker safety, right? 6:33 Manufacturing, uh, lots of different types of equipment, a lot of it you've got to be very careful when you're around, and one of the use cases that's being deployed right now is, um, auto-detection of whether a worker is wearing a hard hat before they walk into a danger zone. 6:50 So how does this work? 6:51 4K camera as a sensor is automatically, you know, monitoring workers as they're working towards doors that leads into this area, and if it detects using Edge Compute, other AI, other related technologies along with 5G, that the, the employee does not have a hard hat on, the doors simply do not open. 7:11 And I'll tell you, um, I've run construction and engineering businesses historically in my career, um, and I'll be the first to admit that it's not intentional, but occasionally we're human, we, we err, we forget, you don't have the hat on. 7:23 This is a way to help your employees be safer. A great employee safety example. Another one is monitoring defects. So in a manufacturing zone- Oh... a lot of times you may be, um, creating something, right? 7:36 You're creating a product or a service, and many times defects will not be visible to the naked eye, right? Or they may be so... 7:45 The, the thing you're building is so precise that you really need a super high resolution camera, 4K, in order to take video, take a picture as it's coming down a manufacturing line, look for a defect, and then be able to automatically shut down the manufacturing line if you see some sort of error. 8:03 Milliseconds matter in this scenario, right? 8:06 So this is the difference of moving from potentially weeks, days, hours to milliseconds of poor defective product that's being created that in a 5G world, both because of the capacity, but also because of the ability to do connectivity seamlessly anywhere, you don't need to run a wire to something anymore, as well as because of the throughputs, 5G will fundamentally make a difference. 8:32 I have to tell you, Mo, anybody who's watching or listening in construction, logistics, transportation, manufacturing, hear safety. Safety, safety. Exactly. That's it. 8:41 It used to be data, data, data, you all used to say location, location, location. Safety is gonna save them millions if not billions. 8:48 How many people are hurt in those environments that if you're saying 5G is gonna do it, that alone says it. Well, safety's priority number one. 8:58 This is why honestly when we talk about manufacturing, I always start with that use case because it's so critical to us as, as humans. Um, I'll give you one more because I, I'm really excited about this one, okay? 9:08 This- Oh, anytime you talk about safety, I'm right alongside you there. Yeah. But go on. So we've talked about safety, we've talked about defects, now let's talk about, uh, workers' productivity. 9:17 Manufacturing zone, a company we're working with, they told me, "Hey, we have, uh, uh, we have turnover in the high teens." 9:25 So every year, one in five-ish of their employees will leave, whether they, you know, go to another job or they retire or go on to the next stage on their life, and they bring in new folks. 9:36 One location, hundreds of different pieces of equipment that they need to train them on both the installation and the repair. So they were looking for how do we make our people more effective faster? 9:46 And so with 5G, one of the use cases we're testing with them is what we call, uh, remote expert. So what is this? 9:52 So this is wearing, uh, glasses that has a built-in video camera, and if someone is being trained and they're going out to do a repair, first and foremost, it can give them guided workflow. 10:02 So it can analyze the piece of equipment and say, "Okay, here's the next thing you need to do, either as part of installation or repair." 10:08 And then if they get stuck, this is the, the really cool part, you click a button and you're virtually collaborating with someone who can be somewhere else in the building, across the country, completely different facility. 10:20 They're now able to see what you see and say, "Hey, um, okay, yeah, I see what you need to do. Go do the X, Y, and Z. You'll fix it. You'll install it." 10:30 Okay, great, now they've learned, they become more productive faster. Beyond that, I think what's super exciting for me is how this can evolve the nature of work. 10:40 A lot of people talk about, you know, automation, uh, reduces jobs, it, you know, replaces workers. 10:47 These sorts of technologies, anyone who's been in manufacturing or frankly any industry has, like, manufactured dis- continued equipment as part of their workflow. 10:55 There's gonna be an entirely new class of work that's created for remote experts that have skill sets in any industry, in any piece of equipment, in any operating system, billing system, et cetera, to be able to help as they see fit, right? 11:11 Work part-time, work in retirement, et cetera. It's, uh, it's very fascinating. The next 10 years- Mm-hmm... are, are gonna reshape our society. So when we talk about the worker of the future- Right... 11:20 'cause we know that we have a shortage in manufacturing, we have a shortage that we have a retiring- Right... 11:26 we have an aging workforce, and we need to teach a younger workforce who really doesn't wanna get into manufacturing, and that's what we have. 11:34 And you just described this ability to either upskill or the ability now to say, "You, you could retire, semi-retire, but teach or learn or, or, or, or have this new skill set," right? 11:45 That you just described, whether we talk about mixed reality or digital twin- Right... that we talk about in manufacturing. 11:51 So all of these new ways, and everyone says we're going to be replaced, but yet we're learning this whole new opportunity that technology's not replacing or displacing, but it... 12:01 reinvigorating and creating new innovation. Yeah, I've always... I, I love that word, re-Vigoration, right? 12:08 Reinvigoration is like for hundreds of years we've talked about the next technology replacing the workers of today and work has evolved, right? 12:17 But what's happened is there's a lot more humans on the planet and work has evolved in different ways, services tied to new technologies, um, entirely new service type roles, entirely new industries that have created new opportunities. 12:34 Um, you know, at the end of the day, I'm a, I'm an optimist. 12:36 I, I fully believe that technology will continue to drive a betterment, a, a betterment of mankind in general, of humankind, um, and will create new opportunities for all of us, as well as, um, as we were talking about, new platforms that enable people to think through, take the skill sets they've had and apply them in new ways in the decades to come. 12:57 You know, when we think about manufacturing, they're thinking the glass is half empty instead of half full. Right. You've just described that new world. So when we look at other industries- I'm happy to have the glass. 13:06 See. [laughs] Yeah. There you go. That's the way we have to look at it. So when we look at all of these new things- Yeah... and we're looking here at CES today, I get excited because I think what's driving the change? 13:17 Is it the B2B marketplace- Right... that's going to be driving 5G, or is it the consumer marketplace that's going to be driving 5G? It's- How do you see it? That's a insightful question. 13:28 So we have been very clear at AT&T Business that we see that 5G will begin with businesses, with enterprises, and the reason for this is, again, let's, you know, let's look at the last 10 years. 13:38 It was just December 31st. Um, I think all of us, uh, organically, you know, randomly think back at, you know, what's kind of happened over the last 10 years. 13:46 And when I think about the last 10 years, the first smartphone arguably, you know, really didn't launch until the 2007 era. The App Store came about a year later. 13:56 Uh, and I mentioned earlier I, you know, used to work in construction and engineering. The first LTE and 4G networks didn't really start being launched till 2010, 2011 was the, when the first markets started coming out. 14:07 And when I think about LTE coupled with the app ecosystem and smartphones, it's created, you know, uh, experiences that frankly none of us could have imagined. 14:17 I mean, yeah, every time I get in a car, uh, I automatically get directions to wherever I'm going, like using anonymized real time traffic from everyone using these apps. 14:28 You get real time traffic as well as suggestions on being able to change lanes. Uh, we've seen the rise of Airbnb, Waze. 14:37 I mean, every app that you use today, um, Uber, Lyft, et cetera, all these things, none of us, nobody really could have imagined, you know, 10 to 12 years ago. 5G's the same way. 14:48 All of those application ecosystems were built by businesses. 14:53 In fact, as consumers, and all of us are consumers, we go home every night, right, and I love my toys like everybody does, we're, our entire lives are defined by experiences, by products that are built by some sort of business entity, right? 15:08 And this is why for the last year we've been working very closely with businesses across every industry, whether it's manufacturing or healthcare, entertainment, smart faces, et cetera, to really deploy 5G plus with millimeter wave to learn and explore what are all of these use cases that we can bring to life that not only help businesses, but then also allow them to think through how they can create new experiences for end consumers like you and me. 15:35 And it's interesting you say that because I always talk about businesses and, and cities- Yeah... of the future. You know, we, we also talk about construction. 15:43 You can't build cities, you can't build connected cars if you don't build this infrastructure- Right... that we talk about. 15:50 And we've been talking about smart, connected cities for a long time here on The Peggy Smedley Show because we believe it's the infrastructure. Right. You have to have that. You seem to think the same concept. 16:00 Talk about how we're going to have all of this, because you've talked about if you were in construction, you get it. Yeah. You have to have all these things. 16:07 Are we going to have where we work, play, business, all has to become interconnected in order for all of these things, whether professionally, business, health, everything is going to have to, and 5G's gonna have to drive that. 16:21 Exactly. You know, I'll go back to the comment I made about this organic build on the smartphone, right? And what, how does 5G enable that? 16:29 So, you know, everyone has a smartphone in their pocket, almost everybody, and absolutely these devices are gonna become 5G enabled. 16:37 Um, all of us as consumers are gonna be able to experience faster speeds, better downloads, new forms of communication over time. 16:44 Where this really gets interesting, back to your point of the infrastructure and businesses and consumers, this integration or this harmony between them, is that 5G will enable entirely new types of experiences. 16:57 Uh, I'll give you a couple of real examples. Um, earlier this year we worked with the AT&T Cowboys and we used 5G to bring new fan experiences to life for people to come to AT&T Stadium in Dallas. 17:10 I mean, at the end of the day, you wanna give fans a reason to come to this venue, to come to this stadium. 17:16 And so we sat down together, we came up with, uh, some, what we thought was super interesting ideas, and I've loved seeing them come to life over the course of the last couple of months. 17:25 Um, I'll give you two quick examples. The first one is one called Pose with the Pros. So literally you walk into the stadium, there's these massive, uh, digital screens, has a built-in camera. 17:35 You go stand, pose in front of it-You can pick up to five of your favorite players, they huddle around you, and they- Literally, you're picking up... No, I'm just kidding. [laughs] Yeah. 17:43 They literally become part of this virtual experience- That's awesome... and it's, it's awesome. 17:48 And by the way, I know this was a success where after the first home game, there was a video of this thing, and on Twitter, it twe- trended to 12 million views as the, uh, coolest fan experience of all time. 18:00 That would not have existed without 5G. This is not a smartphone. This is a you're going somewhere, you're experiencing something new. That one is not my favorite, okay? 18:07 That one trended on social, but to me, the absolute best one is one called Hall of Heroes, where we use this technology called volumetric capture, which think of it, you know, for those, uh, in the video, you're gonna see me be, you know, articulate with my hands now. 18:22 Think of this as this immersive rig that surrounds you, and it's filled with lights and cameras that captures your full body 360 degrees d- in a video, augmented reality video. 18:34 So think of it as like you can dance for 10 seconds, you can wave for 10 seconds, you can do whatever you want, right? It captures you. 18:41 And so then when you're doing this experience, you hold a smartphone up to a wall, you go there, and you're able to do a touchdown pose, you're able to do a dance with your favorite player. 18:50 And I'll tell you, I- when I went and did it, um, it blew my mind. It literally looked like they were standing right next to you, and it made me think of movie theaters, right? 19:01 Um, a new movie comes out, red carpet premiere the first night. Movie theaters can use these sorts of experiences to let you pose with the star of the movie, the actor, right? Or insert yourself into your favorite movie. 19:15 Like, you know, for a generation that's grown up with, uh, fully immersive worlds, these sorts of things are gonna be second nature and new experiences that will be enabled by 5G. 19:25 Are these creative ideas because now you have the, the acquisition, you know, that you have with Warner Media, or is it now that you just say this is the transition that's happening because of the world of sports, is now we have to be more involved with our players on the field? 19:40 Right. So I'll answer that in, in two ways. 19:42 From an AT&T business perspective, we serve three million businesses across all industries, you know, across the world, and so we love working with businesses in any industry to bring things like this to life. 19:54 To the second part of your question, you can imagine with, um, our recent, um, uh, coming together with Warner Media, that we're actively exploring how we can bring these sorts of assets with 5G, with what we do from a business perspective to truly create transformative experiences. 20:11 And it's interesting because most of us would have never have thought we were gonna have such an intense experience in, in the media world, or in, I would think, the way we do in the sports world- Right... 20:22 to be so actively involved. We, we, 'cause it's usually just sitting there and watching, and now we're actively involved. Looking ahead- We... I'll tell you, my wife, she's like, "When will you insert me into Aquaman?" 20:32 [laughs] I'm like, "Um, okay. I will go work on this." I'm not quite sure. [laughs] I will co- I, you know, I will work on, uh, putting you in the movie. But I mean, this, it's coming. That's funny. It's coming. 20:40 Whether it's your favorite h- you know, classic movie, um, or as part of, uh, new movie launches, um, uh, imagine the fan experience, engagement is gonna change. 20:50 So does she wanna be an actress in the movie, or just maybe we need to find out what she wants to be in Aquaman? I, I, I'm gonna go push on that when I get home. You might when you get home. Yeah. All right. 20:58 So we have just a few more minutes- Yep... 'cause I know you are moving on 'cause everybody wants your time. But, you know, we did get some questions from the audience- Yes... 21:05 and I, and, and our listeners and everything, but I do have... I really can't leave without talking about IoT in general. Right. IoT is important, and then we can get to their questions. I know listeners- Yes... 21:15 you want me to get to yours, but I have to ask about IoT. 21:18 IoT in general, how, when we look at what's happening, we talked a little bit about manufacturing, how do you see IoT, and AI, and all these, these things happening? 21:27 How do you see the growth, especially when you look what's happening here at CES? Right. 21:30 Well, the first thing I'll tell you is, you know, at AT&T, uh, we actually have over 65 million IoT connections on our network today. So is IoT here? Is it using cellular networks? Absolutely. 21:45 And this is everything from to your point, uh, smart lighting to help power downtowns in cities like Las Vegas, to connected kitchens, to things that track water. 21:55 Like, we work with businesses today on, uh, connected lighting, smart water for their irrigation. If it's raining, don't turn on the sprinklers. If there's no one on a floor, turn off the lighting. 22:06 To help take cost out of those businesses so that they can redeploy it into, you know, whatever their core mission is. Um, IoT is real. It is scaling very, very quickly. 22:16 And again, 5G, because of the sheer number of connections that a 5G access point will be able to support, we'll see an acceleration in the sheer number over the course of the next 10 years, and frankly, in, in every industry. 22:31 Um, and I think the data and the industry data would tell us manufacturing is probably gonna see the single most. Will we have to be paying close atten- attention to IoT and edge compute and that whole way? 22:42 I mean, everybody really need to be looking at that whole idea? Yeah. 22:45 So the, the way I think about, um, IoT and edge compute in general, and we, we didn't really talk about edge compute very much, is there's lots of types of IoT, right? There's not one flavor. 22:56 There's narrow band IoT, there's LTM, there's LTE, there will be 5G. Um, there is IoT that uses wired connections like ethernet or fiber, et cetera. It's a very broad term. 23:08 And so this is where when we sit down with a business, we really look for what is the, the opportunity? What are we trying to solve for? And what sort of IoT connection is needed to drive that outcome? 23:21 Is it something, um, let's say like a utility meter where you only need data once a day, and so you wanna deploy something that the battery life lasts 10 to 20 years, uh, you're getting data off of it once a day, and that's good? 23:34 Or is it something like a 4K camera where in real time you're looking for the hard hat on the worker and you're getting continuous data, lots of very heavy data traffic off of it? 23:45 All of these things are IoT.5G is not about the sort of connectivity that sits inside of those devices. It doesn't care if it's narrowband IoT or LTM or LTE, 4K, 5G. 23:58 It will support millions of all flavors, thus enabling significantly more connect- connections over time. 24:05 So just quickly, I'll get to one question, 'cause I think that we're out of time, 'cause it's been great having you on here. What do you think is the biggest impact? 24:13 One of our questions, actually it's from Francis from Rutgers University. Yes. So here we got... The biggest impact will be with consumer 5G. Yeah. So I think, um- You've talked a lot about that, so. Yeah. 24:25 Yeah, you know, I, um, you know, I mean, this is great recap question, if you will, which is, you know, 2020 is the year of 5G for consumers. 24:33 We're gonna see a nationwide launch, then we're gonna see an expansion over time, just like we have with every other cellular technology. 24:39 And just like in the LTE world we saw smartphones, application ecosystem, and then application developers, innovators figuring out what are new amazing use cases that I can build and bring to market using this technology, we're gonna see the exact same with 5G. 24:55 Every single aspect of our lives, of our society is likely to be fundamentally transformed as this technology becomes broadly deployed and people come up with connected toothbrushes, connected forks. 25:08 Um, again, I have kids. The, I look forward to the connected bicycle where they can, you know, pedal their way to the park and it's automatically tracked on my phone. I can do that today. 25:17 I put a little IoT sensor in my son's pocket. In the future, his bicycle will just automatically talk to me, and it will talk to the stoplights. It will talk to the infrastructure. 25:27 As vehicles become au- autonomous, um, they will talk to infrastructure. They will talk to the bicycles. We will have a safer world, as we've been talking about, but everything. 25:36 Uh, and these things creep up on you, right? They're, uh... It's not one and done. It's exciting. Yeah. Mo Katibeh, a Chief Marketing Officer of AT&T Business. It's great seeing you. We love to have you on. 25:45 Thank you for your time. But for anybody who wants to know, where can they go to learn more about all the things you guys are doing here at AT&T Business? Absolutely. 25:52 Go to business.att.com or att.com or go to att.com/5g and you're gonna learn a lot more. It's been fantastic. All right. Well, thank you so much. Okay, listeners and viewers, we are out of time for this segment. 26:05 Stick around. We've got more to come right here from CES 2020, or you can tweet at us, and I'll bet you I might get Mo to answer some more of those questions you sent me already, maybe offline later on. 26:15 So all right, check out our website at thepeggySmedleyShow.com. This is The Peggy Smedley Show broadcasting live from CES 2020. And remember, with great technology comes great responsibility. We'll be right back. 26:29 [outro music]
