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John T. Stankey, president and CEO of AT&T (News - Alert) Operations, used his SUPERCOMM keynote speech this morning to emphasize the company intends to work more closely with fewer suppliers.

He also emphasized AT&T’s position that there’s plenty of competition in communications services today, so regulators should be focusing on helping the companies that are investing in infrastructure and services as opposed to creating new competition in the marketplace.

 

Cooperation from the vendor community is integral for AT&T, which needs to work more closely with its suppliers to create the complex networks and services for today and the future, he said.

 

And “you can’t collaborate with a hundred different players, it’s hard to do,” he said, adding the means AT&T is looking to work with a smaller base of suppliers and larger outfits.

 

As for the regulation angle, Stankey said: “Regulation should understand that there’s plenty of competition in the market today.”

 

Despite problems in the economy at large, Stankey said telecommunications investment has remained strong. So regulators should change the rules around long-lived asset investment, he said.

 

The reality is we have a creative environment where innovation is happening and there are lower barriers to entry, he said, but customer expectations for consistency remain the same. And, of course, it is the infrastructure based outfits like AT&T that have built the underlying networks to allow for consistency.