How Three Telecomm Leaders See the Future of Mobile, Video, Content Delivery, and the Internet of Things

On May 2, the Center for Technology Innovation (CTI) at Brookings hosted a panel of industry experts to address the future of digital content delivery in the United States, including discussion on how the explosion of video streaming is changing how we consume content. Below are some highlights from the discussion.

Archived video is available on the event's page, and TechTank blog will have a more detailed analysis of the event soon. Panelists included John Donovan, AT&T's senior executive vice president for technology and network operations; Derek Aberle, president of Qualcomm; and Jeremy Legg, a senior vice president at Turner Broadcasting System.

Donovan said that the new environment of networking and technology is "challenging in every dimension: the people, the way we manage the business and then the underlying technology that we've built."

Aberle also spoke to the "tremendous change in the industry over the last ten years."

Legg asked, "What isn't changing in content distribution at this point?

Toward the end of the program, an audience member asked the panelists what they see coming on five- and 10-year horizons.

Legg described a new product, CNNx that allows viewers to annotate videos in real time to get all of the content from around the web about that content, and also to go to the social conversation on Facebook or Twitter about that content. "That's an example of how we're going to have to think in the future," he said.

Aberle said that the place he sees innovation in the future is mobile health care.

Donovan's answer to the future horizon question centered on the possibilities of the Internet of Things, "my things coordinating with each other."