AT&T Mobile Chief: American Consumers Not Getting Ripped Off

Sprint chairman Masayoshi Son has argued that American consumers are paying way too much for broadband. AT&T disagrees.

AT&T’s wireless chief insisted on Tuesday that consumers are getting a good deal, especially when you consider that America has the broadest LTE network in the world.

Meanwhile, the cost for a megabyte of data has gone down 93 percent since 2008, said Ralph de la Vega, speaking at the Rutberg Global Summit in Atlanta.

“I think it shows that the U.S. is healthy,” de la Vega said. “Investments are being made. Networks are being built.”

De la Vega also addressed AT&T’s contention that Netflix should have to pay carriers for some of the costs associated with delivering their service.

“We have to provide additional capacity,” de la Vega said. “That everybody knows. The only question is — who pays for that addition?”

While customers pay for the data they use, especially in wireless, de la Vega said that the backbone should be paid for by companies — like Netflix — that are driving demand.

De la Vega said the company hasn’t necessarily given up the notion of expanding into Europe.

“We haven’t decided on Europe,” de la Vega said.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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