>> charlie: elcome to the brdcast. tonit the l.l. doctorow, thinks huh novel "mer and langley. >> you live in t sentences, you don't haveny thought beyond that. just trying to make thehing work. and what i'veound about this book is that the conversaon between these two brothe is a fe-long conversation. they don't always agree an mer has general forbearance for somef lagley's succees. but there is a conversation going on. as if two people traveling down aoad except their housebound

mror less. so the road is coming rough them >> charlie: aonversation about the future about wireless and smart phones andall of those devices and 4g wi the c.e.o. of print nextel daniel hesse. >> the speed that we' going, we've been behind that. annow all of a suddene're moving atpeed we're hting that point, we're not only wirelessdevices, but wt i was describing earlier not ju the phone any more almt everything is going to be connect wire wirelessly doctor doctorownd hesse coming u

captioni sponsored by rose communications from our stuos in new york city, this is charlie rose >> charlie: the great e.l doctorow is here his novels have n a national book award two, national book credit i can circle award and the penn ulkner award. many have beenle sel sellers including "rag time"ith his latest effort he returns to a favoriteetting, new york i thearly 20th centur a. account of reuses who fil their townhous with decades of newspapers and found this. i am pleasedo have him back. >> thank you. >>charlie: beyond writing

novels you still tch at nyu? >> yes, i do. charlie: t chair? >> yes. >> crlie: how manylasses do you tch? >> well, i teach one course called "e craft of fiction" a ading course for writers gng rough books and seein how they work breaking the down, undetanding their composition. >>charlie: you've been president -- you'vmet president obama gave a little reading list before he went on vacation, you were one of his favorites? >> yes. was very pleased to hear that. i would have voted for him -- >> charlie: even if he't read your books. that's right. >>harlie: what was he going to read? >> i n't know exactly. he may have been talkingabout "the march" the -- sheer machine's campaign. >> charlie: we talked abo at fur an hour here on this progra >> we did. >> charlie: do u need rea life characters to fashion your novels? >> no, i don't. noat all. justort of -- that old --

>> charlie: sherman was one. >> i started with "rag time" quite by accent. >> charlie: tarted with "g time?" yeah. at the time people were quite shked i was usiistorical characters. of course writers have alway done this. napoleons a character in "war and pee" andof course shespeare used juls caesar d a lot ofther pele, richard iii. harlie: henry v. onnd on. >> now it'sot such a shocking thing. >> crlie: let's start with two thgs. first ofll the dedation. >> that's right. >> charlie great editor of our time. yes, indeed. this ishow theook starts. "i'm her, the blind brother." >> that's the line thatgot me writing the book. i wrote that line downone morning, iidn't quite understandt. then realized that this late

interest i had in the collier brothe had just popped up -- >> charlie: latent interest? >> yes. i knew about them as a boy. when they ed it was a big news sty. they became instant folklore these recluses o collected ings more than most of us collect thgs. >>harlie: tell us about them first then we'llet tothe first line. whatas the true sto of the llier brothers? well, the true story was that they came from very good family they optut, somewhere along the line after their parents died they wentin to the house, closedhe doors and the shutters and decided to le by themlves without any true coection with the outside rld. they dpised the utilities and the utilies -- the city a

e health department and they were embattled for manyyears. th didn't pay their bills. the electric tritee s cutff. the ter was cut off. they were aittle bit paranoid anone of them was physically helpless, dependent on the other. what happened was thalangley to all his junk and bails of paper and stuff andcreated traps and snas for presumed interlopers d prowlers. but heell down and somehow tripped wire, one of these things, the junk collapsed and killed him. and homer,ho was iting ound for help, never got i he died of starvation. poli when they finally moved in they couldn' get throh the door, they had to drill a hol through the roof to enter the house and tons ofefusend things wer dispotioned ofnd

ey had no relatives after they were burd the city tore the house down, made little park on 8th street and 5th avenu call the collier brothers park, whh some of the nehbors 50 years later objected to. >> charlie: this happened en? >> diet in the late '40s. >> charlie: 1947 i think. >> of course, instant folklo, they we instant legends. and i wasn't the only teenage boy whose mother looked inis om said, my god, it's the collier others. >> charlie: and so -- what triggered you to write this? >> well, wrote this li. >> charlie: i'm homer blind brother. >> i rlized that this is something alwa interesd me. as a matter of fact therare seeds of this book in earlier books in"ragtime" the lite boy who ist the center o the story is said valu things

discardeby other people. and inbilly bath, i have a character nad garbage whois rphan boy wh collects stuff on the streets and lives in a cellar of house with all the refuse. somehow this idea has always appeal to me as meaningful. it was the idea of the collier brothers that intereed me. >> charlie: you're terested in an id that came from tm. >> exactly. the point is, they have t extences, theolliers, the historic and mh i can existence. rt of like abraham lcoln only less exalted. e myth i can ex is pans interested me and when you're dealing with mh, you don't have to do reseah, saw don't haveo worbout the details. >> charlie: but here is what i don't understand. i don't understandwhy you're not curious to do that.

i know youon't nee to do that, but is it counter productive to ow too much? >> absolutely. i've known many writers who researched things exhaustively and stopped inheir tracks, they couldn't conditio you n't know too much you use your imagination. you write to fin out what you are writing. that is the process in ficon iting. >> charlie you write to find out what you're writing >> exactlyo. >> charlie: you oe said to me, writingis a press of discovery. >>es. yodon't feel possessive real estate but what yoren.úyou're sr and the reade you lay down asentence and you read itand just th the same surise or interest thathe readerill have. charlie: the stence "i'm homer the blind brother" what was the significae that have? >> it was just tremendously evocative. and i realized that he was a myth tt manded

interpretation. and i thought of the book as an active ever breaking and enteng, getting in to their house and mindnd imagination. >> charlie: that'sust simply in to your mind because you don't know what was in their mind you're just imagini them based on lit amount of information. >> well, there was a limited amount of information available, actually, thers not mh to say about peopleikehis. you wondewhy they are lik that. an-- >> charlie: tt's the sto why e they likehat? >> yes. primarily -- beforall the junk was coected they opted out. they chose this question. >> charlie: wh would someo look inward instead of out? >> well,it seemed to me that ere had to be a certain despair inlved. that's why i have langley coming home from world war i having been gasd. and bng generly grim aut e nature of the human race.

all the millions of people killed and destroyed inword war ii. an homer as a blind young man gradually comi to reale, very gradually that he has a disability because what i portray is his hearing, which is very acute. he's very oud of it. anit's compensatory and while he has that heing he doesn't feel sabled all. i see them as coming in to t use and trying tocreate meaning fo their lives and making i sensible. d this happens in various ways. for stance, langley takes to collect can the day newspapers. all of them in those dayshey were seven or eight major da lease inew york. and he's collecting them and the questi is, why. and what i propose that he's decided to d a research as kind of a aggregatorike ggle and

come up wh a sm nill acts of behavior of human ings and majonewstories. an eventually by ts reseah to creene newspaper for all me. an edition that s to be out date. collie one editionor all time newspaper. 's kind of arim iroc idea he has, perhaps n entely seris. but does keep m busy. >> charlie: u are a -- your collier brothers are more interesting than the real llier brothers. i should hope so. >> charlie:. >> charlie: are they nicer? just as shakespea toome up wit richard the i -- >> charlie: tomake a comparison among writers. >> another writer, just as shakes mere -- charlie: another writer who ste from real life. >> shakespeare's richard iii is more ieresting than the real richard iii. you know there's a society in

england lled the richard t iisociety. tryi to scue his reputation from the reants of shakpeare's py. >> charlie: excellent. that's right. that he wasn a distorted seri mderer. he was agood, kind king w tried to help hi pple. thats their position. which is more interestin that's probably th most pular play tha shakespeare ever wrote. >> charlie: is it really? i would have thought "hamlet" would be. >> "richard the iii" is instructivto the nature of theef people to be more thanther people. to have power. to exess yourself without limit. it's very instructivelay. anit's be very usef to people, over the centurieshat stk in people'minds. charlie: what do you think

you're doing? >> wl, i don't know. what you do isou write the books and u live in them, you live i sentences, y don't have any tught bend that. you are just trying make the thing work. what i have found abou this book is that the conversatn between the two brothers is a life long conversati. they don't always agree, homer has forbearance for some of langley's excees. but there is a conversation going on as if they are two people traveling down a rd except their housebound more or less. the road was coming tough them. and the world isoming in to that hoe because peopleon't t them alone. and wn they do waer around, they 'tract people. there's one episode in ich ey are s bay dressed with long wr and unkempt grooming

ey attract some hippies in central park who come homeith them. d in this way, just one of the wa in which the world intdes in their hou a so it's road nol. >> charlie: majorityf people are hoarders, don't you think? aggregats, hoarders? >> eveone -- >> collectors. >> absolutely. in a sense i think of them not as -- i hatto be expression pack rats, i think of them as aggregators, ascurators of the life and times. but not as pack rats. i think of the as creing a museum of american life rig in that house. >> charlie: you had to ha a reason there f the mythical newspar. >> cliers one edition ofll time. >> charlie: that s his reason foroarding. you ga him a reason for

hoarding. >> but homer wonders how serious it is. and it wasn't just newspape, of course. he built, bught inieces of a mol t ford set them up in the dining room. >> exact. >> then tried use thengine to generate electricity so he didn't have to work with con edis. they d have their adventures. it'sot a quiet life. it's vy activ life. >> charlie why do you write >> why do i write? because i'm good at it. why do peoe what they do? because there's some connection to some fit, that works for them. why does derek jeter play seball? >> charl: i was just thking of ted wilams once said to me, i said, why baseball? meaning not fooall, not some other sport. heaid, because i was gd it. >> yeah.

at's true. and he was. he was terrifi >> charlie: o, how d you know you're good? >> you learn that very early age. when teacher begin to tell you that your compitions are really good and you should keep writin or even members youramily are proudly introducing you to embaassment to other peoe as "the writer in the family also, i happen to be nedafter edgar alan poe wch was an innction there. children areamed as a wish bend a name, isn't there? my father did love e work of edgar alan poe. actuae liked a lot of b writers, butoe was our greatest bad writer that'sy consolation. >>harlie: our greatest ba writer? >> he is. amazingly good and b at the same time. >> charlie: this is silly question but i'm fondf silly questions. would you rather create the

perfect sort of novelistic nceit of a sty that has eat meaning and tnscends and connec with everybody's life and has power or write good book that haderfectly constructe sentences >> whyould you have things likehat? why not take them both and put them together? and just -- >> charlie: in one more important than t other for you? >> well, i don' make disions of that sort i my min the bos always start withome feeling, se evocati start from a pase or picture or phrase of music. something that you fin mysteriously eiting. and these guys were mysteous to me. they had to be uerstood. theyad to be interpreted.

but all the books -- this book started with that line other books have arted, "billy bathga" started with, men in black ties standing o a tuget the deckf a tug boat. it seemed odd -- >> charlie: hav black ties on a tug boat? >> then it turd out that they were there t take one of their members out in to new york march before and dump him the water for betrayal h committed to the gang. >> charlie: that's why they we there. >> the mute i had that, i had the boyy watchg in the very first paragraph, juing on bod just as the tug boat took off and at started thabook. >> charl: how do you know when you're at t end? >> well, you know you're apprching the end, at least i do, the time you e that far along in t book, you don't ha many cices.

everything has kind of an inevitable movement. like arrow getting anyw or and narrer. then you think, we'reoming to the end of this, this particar book i wrote the lastparagraph and didn'tealize it was the end. then i found i coun't go on any rther. iaid, oh, thas the end. then so i lood around for the nearest vodka bottle. >> crlie: do you put anything in it orjust take it straight? put a lite on ice actually. >> charlie: that's the way you celebrate? celebrationrs celebration does one way another. >>harlie: e.l. doctorow "homer and langley" a novel, we'll be right back. stay with us.

>> charl: dan hesse is here the c.e.o.of sprint nextel the third larges wireless carri. he haseen a lifetimin the telecom busiss inclung 23 years at &t. hiidea to offer alat fee for ce phone age revolutionized e industry nowtrying to tu arnd sprint which is lo millions of subscribers in recent years. he has made customers service a company central focus an implementesimpler pricing strategies. print's edge and da could be e key to its fure, i'm pleased to have himere to talk about this businesthat all of us are familiar with. e fure of mileechnology and all of that, welme. >> thanks, crlie, good to be here. >> charlie: let'sdo a history, a primer for ney doesn't know just by reading me of your speeches ilearned some interesting sff. whic is, there onecell phone r every twopeople in the planet. which means by definition i guess about 3.3 billion cell phon in existence because

have 6.6 billion people on the planet. >> 've gone from zero to four billion almost in 26 years >> charlie: it becomes a trilliondollars indiana treat 14 point. >> very soon like nextear one of five trillion llar dustries. tourm, food,uto. that's rig. and wireless. was lookg at stat that said there are ten cellhones produced ten times more cell phones produce each day than babies areorn in t wld. the trajectory is moving up. >> charlie: i wonder f has made moreew rich pele, whever the standard is today than any other business? you think about all those countries, whether is india, the mile east, or asia where they did not have phones of any kind all of a sudd, everybody, one out of every two people has cell phone. >> it' volutionized their lives. before joined sprint was the board ofokia, theargest

mobile phone producer but very large in deveping world like middle east and india and china where there is roughly 50% marketshare. it's just amazing what the cell phones have don culturay for many people not only the phone, we might talk aut this later, the known is become alst like swiss army knife in those countries, it's the ashlight. they d't have power they might live in a tent or shed ty can get charged during th day they come home it their light at night addition t their communication. >> charlie: they n't even go the land line business any more, do they? >>o. skip rigover it completely. you look at htory of cell phones in 26 yea ago, people talk aboutg, when -- that stands for generations when ople are watchingds on tv they talk about 3g and 4 gks. 1g was analog. that was the binning. then 2g came along and 2g was digital youear acronyms like gsm and cdmahat was going text and w speed da. that the cell phones were

innted in the u.s., h lead. actually analogou think killer an was car phones. remember those big heavy pensive things. then gsm came along, ca in the u.s., and then it also began t in the first genation, wireless was gwing reall organically. second generation starto cannibalize. if you remember, i was with at&t, ten years agobefore dital, with digitalypically with eacheneration you get 5x imprement in cost and perfmance. so from 1g to 2 from a cross elasticity point of view -- >> charlie cost five tis -- >> five time basilly for -- you could get fiv times more cacity in given amountf air the costto send digitawas one-fifth r a carrier of what it was in alog. allowed rate plans to get bett w. digit, in second geration, you had things like digital e rate wch you mention the eaier at at&t. ten years ago you went to

airport pay phon as far as the eye can see. and lines. now you can't find one. they're basical gone. pay phone business, calling card business has gone away. talk about other couries, watches. 73% ofell phone users check their time onheir phone not on a wah. cameras, nokias larst camera maker the world. as aatter of fact there's more cell phones that he been produced with cameras inhem than all camerasver made, stand alone cameras, digital and film put that in pspective. it's binning to eatn to affect otherndustries. about 2g, gone to 3g now.that'. that's really when you ge smart phones and t iphon and blackberry a all these really smart oss. and now you have -- >>harlie: opating stems. >> operati system, whether it's app o palm' os was

revolutionary in that it duplicated the desktop experience which is ability to multi-tasking. anhilting the market google's backing which isery open. lot of these oss are getting much more powerl. microsoft st launched 6.5 and going 7.0 windows mobile. the oss a reallyoving rapidly. the g game changer, it's out in 3g, it also comin outs in 4g to dlode. what are called myfi devices. there's a wiress standard that's been out ther for a long time, it's almostubiquitous called wi-fi. anyou have 425, 500 million, whateverhe number of devices, active wi- devices outn there thu.s. right now that now can bome mobilewith these little puck, is thatare like cabl modem a wi-fi router in your pocket. that is 3g version. >>harlie: that will do what for yo >> allow you to take five devices with y on the road.

it can be your phone, your pc, your net boo yourp3 pyer, your gaming device. your camera, camcorder, ty're al connect to the internet so you're basically hot spot i no longer the sizef coffee sho or the siz of your apartment it's the size of a city or the size of country. so at 3g seds they operate real well b at4g i tnk see adoption of these devices. >> charlie: carry you're own wi-fi spot. >> they will carryhem because all of these devices cane mobile. u're going to start to see wi-fi put almost u ick with ually in evything. and on the phoneetwork. i saw saw stat th sposedly 44% of iphone use is over -fi. because it'so much faster than the at&t network which is akin to 4g spee you have -- ts is what has been one of the big chang that

i've seen in the industry, is be typically ten, 15 years betwee generations. tog, when they were being made spectrum being auctioned ars ago like, what are t applicationsyapplicaonsy do we need 3g. it's barely in the ground everything is moving to 4g. launching4g cities -- charlie: tell us the difference in 3g and 4g? >> 5x. each generation is basically ha oregon order of magnitu. the reason would care, fe tis the speed but becse of cost i can get my bucke of gigabytes insteaof minutes, us to be bucket of minutes in the voice world. ount that i can use, you can use about kfe times as much for th same price as that. that why i. experien is more like the he cable modem experien in terms of speed sot's try like a mobile hot st whenou get to 4g. see explosion in theumber of -- charlie: ow manyobile devices do you want to carry? >> u to the iividual. what i wt to carry forwhat

i'm doing. at's been happening i the indust, as we move to let's say smart phones whi is 3g. is they bome, really becoming swiss army knives. and it's of course my watch and my calendar, my e-mail, my camera, g, it's my computer. but you have to make comomises on each those to be able to ha them all in one device. what i think we'reoing to see is, smart notion wille able to do morand more things that u d to that smart phone. but th these hockey puc, you know, would like to take digital slr cera take it at5 megaxels but the reason that i have been takingamera veron is, i want to upload theicture right now. but if it's got wi-fi init, also if it has 4g takeother ever to take 15 megapixamera sh, shoot it up, share itwith somebody on 3g. on 4g like. that that'shy i care. with 4g all of tse other

devices,igh definition camcorders,arger scree. if i wanto watch television on the row road or download movies. i may not wa to carry with it me all theime. buthen i trave like a kin dellgive you emple. a grea 3d dece. not something i cancarry. >> chlie: how many things doou take withou? >> i have average of fe dierent cell phones in my briefcase at any one time. >> charlie: why do you have five different cell phes? >> i want to be filiar -- i'm in t exwis. >> charl: you want to know what iphones, blackberry is dog, sprint doing, veriz is doin what &t? >> i wantto kno what all sprint devices are. all of our differe models. so we have reclaim which is this gree environmental phone. the blackberry tour. thepalm pre. gettin ready t launch new android devices. i want to beood -- >> charlie: androideing google. it is an operating system.

it is -- >> charlie: oogle usest? >> google sponsod the developmt of android. when you see our phones it wi say, you'll see the google brand as wls sprint brand. >> charlie: y are big believer inpartnering, aren't you? >> very much so. acally, our 4g talking about 4g we' done that in partnership with gooe, intel, time warner, mcast and brighthouse. because it's not just the fa that they can brg money, because rt of fixin sprint is generating ch flow andaking down the debt. these networks whe you bui out 3-bgs 3g andg are expensive. i can mitigate the cos by having tm share in the investme of building ohis 4g netwo they can bring great things to the tabl >> charlie: whaare the things tt are influencing delopment the most? >> a lot has to did with price. ere is this magic point at 2-300. these smt phones are $ 40. very expenve. theye -- >> charlie: iphone, i don't an to use appl as example but you can y iphone now for

$199. >> that's correct. >> charlie: sprint phone for -- >> sprint andt&t pay $600. we sl it to you for $200 in exchange for two-year contract. and because it's -- >> chare: expin t numbers. give me that again. rint being a network. when you sn up for whas call post pay,two parts of the busine genelly called pre-pay and post-pay. this is one ever the misunderstandings a lot of customers have arod early termination fees, how come i can't get a ne phone, i just -- why can't i gethe same pri asew customer. it's because the carrier has subsidized that phone a large extentent typically selling it you for a thd touarter of at we pay for it even when we're buyingn volume. i don't knowxactly what - at&t won't tell me what they pay for iphone. if you read most of the press, financial pres they think hone cost about $600 sell

them for200. t so they -- you areaying $400 less th retail. t you sign up for two-year contract at&takes it up over24 easy payments of blank. but at is rlly spurred adoption much more cause if the ipho was $600, everyby wouldn't have e. or palm pref they were $0. >> charlie: here is the price point at makes a differce? >> we think 'sround -- somewhere 00 cleay is magic. $300 is first e. b-200. each ones a step function. >> charlie real mass comes bew 200? >> correct. >> crlie: sprint specifally, you first. you' been in the business a long time. >> don't remind me how old am. charlie: bn c.e.o. for how many years now, of sprint? >> little over year andhalf. >> charl: there the this great story about you.

which you wand to go to work at at&t. yet at& we only hiring people from harva. your sister lived nea harrd? >> yes. she livedinoston. >> charl: she went to see what kind of internship offers they made on the bulletin boards or whatever ey did. at harvard because that's where their audience was. >> athe time, i just wanted really good summer internship on my resume. >> chaie: you were athat point in your academic career? >> fir year out of aer my first year of busine schl, i wentto business sool my mba right out of undergrad i had no significant rk experience. my resume was raking leaves, cutting lawns. those kindofhings. i wanted to have a marquee name on my resum before i went out in to the job world. >> charlie: b greato say at&tnternship. >> corct.

i was cornell. my sisterigured, a lot of the top schools summe intnships are ugher to get, particularly back then but i think still are than full-time job. there aren't nearly as many. she went over to -- i talked to her about going over to harvard she said,kay, i'll go over there. she went and ju startedaking wn all the informion on summer internships that ty we advertising there. she got me a copy of the applation. i sent it to the recruiter at &t. he goes, thi kid is at cornell. what the heck?&wt's the story h? he was just curious. he picked up the phone and called me and he asked me about it. i said,eah, i asked my sister tgver to harvard she got thi thing. he ss, i want to meet you. the plane ticket the next day -- >> charlie: not a plane ticket come on dow for intervie >> at the end of t day they offered me job that was for

summer internship. >> charlie: you stayed after? >> i bent back to my secd year of business school. th gave me job oer actually at the end ofhe summer. i interviewed what have you, a the end of the --end of my interviews at the end two of years i decided to go bac >> charlie: wt was it aut lecom that interested y? >> a combination. i felt telec industry wa going to change. and chae significantly. e industry structure -- >> charlie: good instinct. >>he other was, at&t. it was a great company, extremely novative. peop forget it wa generating th or three patents a day. they were really, been a company that was changg trying to beme much more marketing orient. i felt i could make a diffence. because th were going through th, mci an sprint and what ve you had already hit th scenehey were jus beginni to see competition they were ing after these high powered mbas i felt i cld make a difference. the other thing at&t itself d the went of the smer i'd like, myundergraduate was

internationa studied. i'd like a job working inteational departme. they said weon't put new people tre. i id, i'd like to be in the internatnal department. highway first job they camback said, okay, u're in the international depament. my mban finance you're ing to negotiate normal deals with eupean telephone compaes. it fit nicely. a combination tha got there. >> charlie: tn began runnindivision of at&t? >> it to me awhile. i was there 2 years. back when i was about 37, was sent overseas to be the c.e.o. of joint venture company w d at&t equient vision. we crewe to have lucent used to be western electri which wasnetwork systs. at&t used to this hug massive company then after tt ian intert division then c.o. at at&t wireless which what did last three years. then left in 20. >> charlie: ou go to sprint.

a company that was consired one of the three great wireless mpanies. rizon, at&tnd sprint. >> yes. >>harlie: verizon hashe most numbeof customers, s? >>t&t verizono neck and neck. >> chaie: about 90 mlion. >> about 80 million. >> charlie: where is sprint? >> 49. >> charlie: what s haening to sprint? whwas it losing customers? >> ck in '06 and '07he brand took hits beuse some of custer service experiences that the company let happen. the brand really got hit, what i've been focusing on, you mentioneat the ginning is build that brand back. the number one thingo really fix the customer experience. i'm very proud of the fact that for 18 months in a row now it takes a lot of wk to do it each month,ur customer satisfactioncores have gone up. 2008 we were e only national carrier tt actually had ss churn, fewer of our

customers left us than in previous year. what's minderstood peopleay, you're losingcustomers. it not that wee ling -- wee done a lot tter job of keepg the customers we ve. we've ma most improment, as a matterf fact in the industry in that. t what's beenhappening steadily since the merr with nextelack in 2005, is that we haven't beenringing in new customers. we're bring ink fewer new ones than are leaving our net subscriber numbeis declining >> charlie: merger with nextel was a b idea? >> in 20/20 hindsight, yeah. was. yes. in that the nextel network is grt. great for applications. great people. but t synergy, if you will, that peopl believed were tre didn't materiali. sohe premium that sprint paid for nextelas too much. the other thing is, this is what you learn in busines school, merg of equals isn't a good thing.

beuse in this case we had two headquarters, operating headquarters where a lot of peopleoing day-to-day in kans city. the managent team was 50-50, the board was 50-. let's take sprint name, brand name let's use nextel colors, yell and black. a lot of that. >> charlie: ften you have different cuures, too. >> very diffent. one of t first thgs at i embarqed on when i got t sprint going to one headqrters one team, one culture. >> charlie: give me theame plan. you take a company, this is almost a businesschool sson. like sprin which is nber three. you want what's the goal? what's the ambition? rst you got to fix the problems. which is you got brand identy, which customer sisfaction, ich streeteciding on who your team s. a those kinds of human resrce questions. once you got that inplace, how do you wi >> i think t economy is, i think what's old get see quote, you're notthat fast how ce

yore always at e puck. i skate to where thepuck is gog. the puck isoing in two spots one is data. andhen we say data in wirels we meanverything except voice. it's text or tv or sfing, anythinghat's non-voice is ta. broad definion of da which is 3g and 4g. see o -- we've worked hard, network awards for fastest and dependable when yo get to data or 3g that's where we claim most tendible a first 4g. we're skating to leadersh to be the first in 4g to the first in data. the other area that's growing, almost like bar bell. use sprintrand around that. we have nextelrand around productivity. the other big area where the puck is going, is prepaid. there's post pai which i describe earlier whichs big discount on the phone sendt to you. thother is prepaid which is, i don't get a discount on the phone, i actlly buy month in advance or buy so my minutes, i don't get a bill. i always payn advance.

it's prepaid. that's generally -- >> charlie: why is that more tractive? >> no contract. also people don't have credit rating -- post paid, w are the bank. we're seing you $0 device for $200 your credit rating tters. if you havno credit rating or poor credit rang or say, i would just rather that have -- not haveassle of a coract i go prepaid. th the economic downrn, and prepaid offers getting lot more successful or aggressive in our case, our prepaid brand is boost. >> charlie: it's a mh bigger in eope than -- >> it is. that's why i think even more potential as i look the u.s. market. you ok at rest of world you see where customers e goi. their preference, one of the, i ink maybe one of the benefits of the economic downturn people more interestein paying cash and taking l credit and having less of a commitment. our boost brand, whichsprint owns this past quarter had

$777,000et ads that any epaid carrier h. we just announced acquisitionf virgin mobile wee doubling down on prepaid. really data an prepaidare areathat weant to take disproportionatehare. way think we' get to growth. >> charlie: do you think at the future with using alough devices havingthe wi-fi connect. rather than evething everything in on device. because you think tt there's me short comin in having everything in on device? corrt? >> think it'soth. i think that both areriving growth. you'll have smarter and smarter vices, the smart pnes, you ar exactly right. smartphones e the growth gine of this business inhe industry right now. as a matter of factor sprint we call -- depends which study you look at. wh's classified as smart phone versus a touch phone, touch screen versus a qwrtythose thosell tother that's o-thirds are that category today from -- >> charlie: is there a

judgment on touch phone as to whether uch phone is the preferred mol today? >> well, i mea-- >> charlie: tnk iphone. >> from industry point of view at's where the battle is. that's where the gwth i the downsi to the carriers, that's where the big subsidies are. it's expensive for u those are the most expensive pnes for us to sell. those are the ones where question need to make sure tt the customer sys with us doesn' churn. cause we're out a lot of money when somody takes smart phone because the are expensive vices. smartphones will get smarter and better and faster. i'already looking at 4g rsions of smartphones. so that will contie to get better. t i think the a-ha that has been almost the guy already track, is that they have been, a swiss army knife with more things on them. this notion of ving this hoey puck and the specialized devis also being able to take them having it all one account. not having to have each one nnected. dependinwhich i'm doing ian

ke which one with me. >> chaie: ease of access an simplicity. >> yes. >> charlie: is a driving motivation. fo consumers. >> yes.chaie: if you can make it simpler, if you can put it e plan, one bill, one way to use i more likely to get customer. >> it's more thanhat. customer will pay premium for sim police fee. simplicity is everytng. you meion iphon the thi that steve jobs did with the ipod he just me it really simple wn it took off. digital e rate. which we launched bk int&t that was all about simplicity used to be, ii was making local call in myon it was this, local ca traveli, itfuls all these fferent rates. simple, took off, peoplpaid moreitasn't comprise cut. rey now which we offer i our stores now which isthe smart phone so complexwe'll do on on one with you. we think that will bring goodwill. we just announced any mobile any ti don't have to think abut

i'm i'm calling you, are you on vezon? it's all abo simplicy. i couldn't agree more. it's making these comex devices,hese swiss army knives really simple. teaching pple how to use them. and rate ans that i don't have to worry about meter runng i get the same bill. that drives calldown to customer ce. that big cost in our industry is our cal to care. en i talked about iroving customer servic part of it was to keep ctomers. big piecwas to take our costs down. we've csed 19 call centers in the last 12 months. and we're answering t phonates fasterhan we did a year ago. becauswe're removg the reasons for customers to call. one of the bignes is, what's this extra charge fo thisext messager whatev. we try to clude that. >> charlie: thing y announced is any what? >> any mobile any te. basicallywhat it means, in this dustry probably allthese calling circles. verizon customer, it's not era arge i'm not billed for on verizon or if you're amy favs i can call these five numbe

unlimited. this just ss, call any mobile knk yourself auto out f. you're on a of our -- athing data pns unlimited text and data machines which starat $70 a no. yoare calling anyobile etherou're calling at&t, t-mobile don't worry. >> charlie: palmp. how does one go about saying i'm going to challengehe iphe. it on.n on. as well as ackberry. >> it was palm's decisionto taken ale. palm h had long standing relationship wh sprint. when i saw phone early as d r guys we said, this is a great device. we're goingto put a lot of weight -- >> chaie: do you win oroe dendr loses? >> it has i apact but it esn't determine whether we w or lose. ry important. you look at almost an sprint ad if ere's phone in itt's e palmpre ourxclusive phone, our flagship pho. >> charlie: iit ming a dent in to the iphone market? >>t's doi wel but you' got to almost put

iphone to be separate category. apple brand has done so well. like comparing someone michael jord. >> charlie: wn you think of all. this this open debat >> every chrome which i more gear to open system. are we lookg -- are we looking at operating systems which instar net will play creasingly? the votal role? >> solutely. that's really what 4g is going to be all about. voice just becomes applition. what weid about a year ago is we opened allf our phones t what's called fu html browsing. there's no more -- go anywhere you want on our phone i have windows mobiownload skype onhe phone. knock yourself out, go for it. we're as open as can be. also hel attract devopers because if they develop applicatn for internet you want to make vy easy for th

toort it over to youphone. not ha to go through lot of extra work. op is in our best interts. al number three -- >> charlie: also more gives potential -- our best intere, o, the duster. >>bsolutely.charlie: l the applications might take ace because of that. >> yes. >> charlie: finally, this yo us this example, t, all of this excites me. use campbel ofales tax of a guy can be sitting -- more buness, he can be sitting at someown where he's maki a sales pitch. he knows that he needs a video from somewhe else. that he didn't bring with him. he doesn't have to call the office say it will here tomorrow. he can call back it will be st wirelely to his phone or his dece. >> yes. >> charlie: instantly, he can say look, i want tohow you is demonstration that we have whici didn't realize would come up but here it is. >> an business proctivity that coming fromireless, it's helpi u.s competitivenesis pretty substantial. tith thahen -- that's

why broadbd matters bause you're talng about a power point preseation, text i used it in was in 4g, if i was in 2g 3gaiting along ti. been f they hadot of graphics, poweroint, 4g, youcan actually do than another fly. >> charlie: are we up to seed with the resof the world in terms of speed d broband? >>g we were number o. with 2g advantage europe which is -- th 3g advantage asia. 4g, u.s. back in theriver's seat. >> charlie: o people in eupe and asia agree with that? >> ithink they would. wee going to have the first larg majorg netwo in the world here >> charlie: give --ay ground work filly for where the great -- erever the gre questionsith respect to telecom. wh are the -- ere is the battle going tbe joined? in ter much the future and in terms of compaes and products.

well, i think wiress s such an opportunity for growth ing forward. one of the issues, i think obama administration is focusing on the wireless industry. whichas its pluses d minuses. in ter of first of all they realize it's importance the country. it's importance to the nation. productivity, the number of jobs th are created, wha have you. the downside, if you're a business guy u don't want extra regulations, either. om a strucral pepective they havuestions. you ha this robust wireless dustry. in the u., you have at&t d verizon who e not only by far laest wireless companies, but they're stil vertically integrated. talked about at&t the old bell system system, tre was a local monopoly. they still have those in those old territors. and so if we're sprint or t-mobile we want to connect our wirele network in those areas, it's really, really expensi. they charge us a lot. the land line monopoly division

which is a competitiv impediment to growi the indury further. the's some rulatory issues. i think there some other concerns in the industry and regulation around rly termination fees. why can't let customers break their ctracts. if you te tho away a phone prices will up, i bieve novation will come down. this adoption, this rapid adtion of new devices and new ones because people buy them because they're very affordable it's because th're subsidized. if you were going to stay with the same carrr for a yearor two u'll get a bter dl. thanf you pay the full price for phone have the flexibility of leaving. i think the other kind of ars that are goi to grow in wirele, is just atery high lelet think about it, long distan networks and telecom industry areoing to be wired and continue tbe that. what we callmiddle distance, th city is going to be mobile.

what we think of as -- what we're taing about our busine. then alsoee the home or emise become increasingly wireless and s the american arof thosendustry. that's the notion of wi-fi and wi-fi routers, yourar will have aireless chip becse it's going to be not oy for entertainment but monitoring. healthcareou'll have wireless pills you take tt measure wt chemicals you have in ur stomach or wireless chips in yo clothes that measure your heartbeat. >> chaie: this is within the next ten years or fivez. >> pbably five. machine to machine. kindle is aneme. your appliances will sen information to your server to tell y whether it needs repair or what is in the refrigerator. the areas of growth and what it will meain terms o css dustry almost going to -- hard to fathom. charlie: it's the most

exciting time in theistory of telecom but of digital technogy. >> i think s i've bin the industry a long time. and e generatns, the speed with which we're going fro 3g to 4g, we've beenehind the law. now all audden we're movg at the speed we're hitting that inflecon point. t only wiless devices ubiquitous in t world what i was descring earlier no just the phone. almost everythinis going to be connected wirelessly. so -- charlie: only apply to micro proser >> traditionally in the tech industry it's term thrown around. actually applies to a lot ke fiber optics ty reay developed athe speed of morse'slaw as to terms of how muchapacity in a fiber. it was doubling ever18 nths. the biggest impedent to mobile growths you got processors lot faster, screens are gettin sharper, they usmore and more power and batterytechnology is nomoving very fast.

lithium ion batteries hit the market in ' not a lot better. incrementally bette but mobe depes upon batteries. even these here deces i've been describinhave to be powered. that's t one brethrough that the indury needs. it needs battery bakthroughs? >> crlie: where might it co from? >> i don't know. lar we hope. renewable energy sources. >> charlie: that'true about cars and everything else. >>yeah. i don't ow. >> crlie: thank youor coming. >>charlie, thank you f having me. captioni sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group awgbh access.wh.org