AT&T's Designs for the Wireless Market

In one wing of AT&T (T)'s sprawling corporate campus just outside Atlanta's upscale Buckhead neighborhood, a cadre of wireless employees is doing business in a way that's anything but usual for the telecom behemoth. The newly assembled team, led by about a dozen executives, operates more like a startup than a part of the 132-year-old AT&T. And with good reason: Their mission is to come up with innovative ways for people to use AT&T's wireless network. The idea is to go beyond cell phones and hook up all manner of electronics to the Internet—from digital cameras and navigation devices to parking meters—to change the way people live and work.

Despite the unusual operating arrangement, AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson says this is no sideline for his company. He believes that figuring out how to take advantage of mobile access to the Internet will be critical to AT&T's growth. "It is the strategic initiative. It is the business model," says Stephenson in an interview. "It supports everything we're going to be doing over the next five to 10 years."