Taipei Times: Where are your headed in the US and what are your career plans?
Joseph O'Konek: I am going to Seattle and will be the head of the western region for AT&T wireless domestically. I don't know how many customers AT&T wireless has in that part of the country, but in terms of revenue, that region has about three times more revenue than Far EasTone (遠傳電信).
The market in North America is very different with penetration [low] at about 55 percent -- a very different market from Taiwan.
It is very exciting for me, I have been out of that market since 1993, so I am very excited to go back. AT&T is interested in learning a little bit from the international perspective and this is the first time they have brought in an executive who worked in the wireless industry outside of North America. So they are kind of excited to have me and I am excited to go.
The other thing is AT&T wireless is converting from a CDMA to a GSM system [like in Taiwan], and they are pretty energetic about setting up networks across the United States.
Japan-based NTT DoCoMo is a large investor in AT&T wireless in North America.
With different systems in place such as CDMA, GSM, TDMA, the market in North America is much more complicated from the standpoint of consumers. That's the biggest challenge and personally I think that's one of the reasons why the market penetration hasn't taken off.
The scale of the country is so different in terms of geography, so even after 20 years they still don't have the kind of pervasive coverage Taiwan has.
Taiwanese consumers really have great services, and they should be very happy because no place else in the world has this kind of coverage.
TT: Why you are leaving your current position?
O'Konek: Five years is also a logical time from the business perspective. When you look at the accomplishments over five years, we [helped the company grow] and took it public.
When I first came here, I only expected to stay for three years, so the five-year- stay is longer than I have planned originally, but I feel good because we -- the business and the company we created, the culture -- those kinds of things are going to be sustainable.
TT: AT&T wireless directly and indirectly owns about a 21 percent stake in Far EasTone, so will AT&T appoint the next vice president of Far EasTone?
O'Konek: Actually most people don't realize that AT&T didn't appoint me. Far EasTone made a global search back in 1997 to find me and that's the same thing the company is doing right now, both AT&T and Far EasTone engaged in that process.
The perfect candidate is someone who runs a company with billions of US dollars in terms of revenue, someone who works in Asia and has a wireless background and a real plus would be someone who speaks Mandarin.
TT: Over your five-year stay in Taiwan, what major progress has the telecom sector made?
O'Konek: It's clear when you look at Taiwan's wireless market that it's had a highly successful deregulation in terms of the benefits brought to consumers, and in terms of company profits.
So the timing of the deregulation helped and also the convergence that took place with the Internet, from 1997 to 2000, those factors coming together really helped this industry.
The other aspect is that when you look at some of the things unique to Taiwan, such as the launching of dual band and tri-band phone services that were very innovative back in 1998.
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