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AT&T wants to control your car & home...and that's just the beginning

He’s the man who clinched AT&T’s three-year exclusive deal with Apple’s first-ever iPhone (the 2G) 10 years ago. Since then, Glenn Lurie, the CEO of AT&T Mobility, has been responsible for building and expanding the company's selection of connected devices.

Lurie spoke with Yahoo Finance exclusively at Quartz’s The Next Billion conference in New York City on Monday.

We know AT&T (T) as a mobile carrier. Some of us may know they acquired DirecTV. But did you know it's made a foray into the “internet of things?”

The term “internet of things,” or the network of physical objects that have Internet connectivity, has been around for decades, but this previously farfetched vision of the future is becoming a reality. Cisco forecasts 50 billion connected devices by 2020.

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In the first quarter of this year, AT&T added 1.6 million connected devices, including one million connected cars. That’s 70.3% more than the same quarter a year ago. AT&T partnered with nine automakersincluding Audi, Chevrolet, and Volvo—to provide wireless service to three million cars last year.

And earlier this year, AT&T acquired DirecTV for $63 billion, catapulting the company into the world of cable. “Now we’re the largest linear TV player on earth,” said Lurie.

He cited Verizon (VZ), T-Mobile (TMUS) and Sprint (S) as AT&T’s competitors in the mobility space, but in TV, it’s cable companies. “We now has all of the assets that we can bring together for a single, integrated experience. It’s our future.”

What connection looks like

Lurie says that one of the first connected devices that caught his attention was the Amazon Kindle, which first launched in 2007. “The mobility was somewhat hidden and was really simple. The Kindle started our [thought] process: What’s it going to be like when everything’s connected? We’re just scratching the surface.”

The Kindle is now among the 23 million connected devices on AT&T’s network that isn’t a smartphone. Its portfolio includes Digital Life (AT&T’s home security and automation platform), healthcare tracking and gaming devices.

Next, Lurie sees the emergence of smart cities with vehicle-to-vehicle communication and vehicle-infrastructure dialogue to make driving safer and smarter.

Inculcating a spirit of innovation

During his keynote presentation, Lurie recognized startups like Airbnb and Uber as being disruptive forces that formed during the rise in mobile data usage.

But he says that an established company like AT&T—which has been around for 130 years—has the responsibility and need to maintain a culture of innovation. “People want to talk about innovation at these small startups, but it’s happening big time with big companies,” he said.

Of course, no one wants individual apps for each connected device. Lurie envisions a streamlined app to control the entire “internet of things.” spectrum. “There’s a massive opportunity for someone—hopefully us—to bring [a single] experience to the customers that’s simple and not intimidating.”