Google also stressed that the delay is not a change in the company’s policy, which is to release new versions of Android into the open source community shortly after their release.

“Android 3.0, Honeycomb, was designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes and improves on Android favorites such as widgets, multi-tasking, browsing, notifications and customization,” the company said in a statement.

“While we’re excited to offer these new features to Android tablets, we have more work to do before we can deliver them to other device types including phones.”

Google has been quite vague about when some of the new features in Honeycomb would make their way into phones.

“Until then, we’ve decided not to release Honeycomb to open source,” Google said. “We’re committed to providing Android as an open platform across many device types and will publish the source as soon as it’s ready.”

That doesn’t mean that tablet makers can’t still get their hands on it, I’m told. Members of the Open Handset Alliance already have access, and other tablet makers can get access by contacting Google.

What it does mean, though, is that folks who want to do other kinds of things with Honeycomb will have to wait a little longer.

The reason, Google says, is that it took a bit of a shortcut. It wanted to get a tablet-optimized version of Android quickly. To do so, it stopped making sure Honeycomb would work on phones. The company is concerned that if it released Honeycomb source code now, someone would try to cram it onto a phone, creating a potential problem for customers and a black eye for Android.

The delay in releasing the source code may well make sense and be a good thing for the Android ecosystem, but it also highlights the fact that Google still controls a lot when it comes to Android.

The news comes on an interesting day, just as Research In Motion announced that its PlayBook tablet will include Android support. That support, though, is only for programs written for Android 2.3 and earlier, RIM said.

Meet up with anyone in Orlando for CTIA and the first topic is likely to be where you were on Sunday when you first heard about AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile.

For answers, I’ve heard everything from cooking to napping to arm-deep in Play-Doh. Nearly all of T-Mobile USA’s PR team was on a plane to Orlando when the news broke. HTC North America head Jason Mackensie was watching his son play at a basketball tournament in Texas when his phone started buzzing with messages from co-workers, as well as folks from both carriers.

But, seek to discuss the topic of the merger in detail and few will comment.

Samsung Mobile Senior Vice President Omar Khan had to be pressed to answer whether he was surprised or not. Eventually, Khan admitted he was surprised, but declined any further comment on the deal. Many other executives and non-executives followed suit, most notably FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski–one of the people whose opinion matters the most.

“Of course you will understand I am not going to comment on that,” he said during an on-stage appearance.

Those that do offer up a comment usually characterize it as good news or business as usual.

“The fortunate thing is we’ve got good relationships with both companies,” Mackenzie said.

Oddly enough, the people most willing to talk are those closest to the deal. Sprint is vocally concerned, while Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead says that he isn’t going to get distracted and assumes the deal will probably go through.

“I do have concerns that it would stifle innovation and too much power would be in the hands of just two,” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said during a keynote in which he shared the stage with Mead and AT&T’s Ralph de la Vega.

Mead, meanwhile, appeared unshaken. “We have a tremendous amount of competition in the industry,” he said, adding that the industry will go through continued change, such as the AT&T purchase. “I’m not concerned about it.”

For everyone else in the industry, it is both the thing on everyone’s mind and the topic no one is quite ready to discuss.

In the past, Boingo’s app was really only useful to its customers as it located paid locations. That made sense, of course, since Boingo makes its money by selling Wi-Fi, either on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis. Although it operates only a smattering of its own networks at some airports and other public locations, it has roaming agreements allowing it to sell unlimited access at more than 325,000 locations.

The new app, which will be free, will be of use for non-customers as well, displaying a map with Boingo’s paid hotspots in red and free Wi-Fi locations in blue.

Boingo spokesman Christian Gunning said the company hopes to sway a few new customers to its paid network. Even those that don’t become paying customers will help improve Boingo’s database by validating which free networks are indeed up and running.

“We all get something out of the equation,” Gunning said.

The app can even help users automatically log-on to the free locations. Gunning, who lives in Los Angeles, said he once logged into a free hotspot provided by a Jewish museum along his commute. Now, every time his car stops at that stop light he notices his Android phone automatically log onto that network.

“I do have concerns that it would stifle innovation and too much power would be in the hands of just two,” he said.

Sharing the same stage, Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead said that the company is clearly watching things, but noted that his company was built through acquisitions.

“We have a tremendous amount of competition in the industry,” he said, adding that the industry will go through continued change, such as the AT&T purchase. “I’m not concerned about it.”

Mead said that his company had not considered a purchase of T-Mobile ahead of the deal and also told Reuters that his company isn’t pondering acquiring rival Sprint.

As for the AT&T-T-Mobile deal, Hesse noted that it doesn’t really matter what he thinks, since it will be regulators at the Department of Justice, FCC and elsewhere that get to decide.

FCC Chairman Juiius Genakowski, who spoke before the CEO panel, acknowledged the elephant in the room, but declined comment on the deal.

AT&T’s Ralph De La Vega didn’t say too much about the deal, other than to repeat the company’s case that the deal is in the public interest as it helps alleviate the looming spectrum crunch and will expand high-speed LTE service to more of the U.S.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead and AT&T President Ralph de la Vega are set to speak in a discussion moderated by CNBC’s Jim Cramer. T-Mobile CEO Phillip Humm was also set to be on the panel, but dropped out following AT&T’s announcement that it plans to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

Before the CEOs take the stage, though, there will be comments from FCC Chair Julius Genachowski.

Mobilized is here in Orlando and will have live coverage when Genachowski starts speaking in just a short while.

6:24 am: Still speaking is Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, acting in his capacity as Chairman of the CTIA.

6:28 am: Hesse has covered off on a laundry list of stuff from distracted driving, to the explosion of apps to recycling cell phones, to the role cell phone cameras have played in uprisings in the Middle East.

He’s finally wrapping up with a plea for the FCC to free up more wireless spectrum.

“Spectrum is also the oxygen that gives our industry life and growth,” he said. “But we are running out of oxygen.”

Genachowski takes the stage, reading his remarks off a tablet.

6:34 am: Genachowski addresses the elephant in the room: the AT&T-T-Mobile deal. Of course you will understand I am not going to comment on that.

6:35 am: He switches back to a popular topic in the crowd–freeing up more spectrum.

6:36 am: Surely it is just a matter of time before 5G will revolutionize the industry, Genachowski quips.

6:38 am: Genachowski is making the case that the mobile sector is critical to U.S. leadership and talking about the importance of the industry. But he’s preaching to the choir.

6:48 am: A lot of carbon dioxide being expended at CTIA talking about how spectrum is the industry’s oxygen.

Starting to wonder when we are going to get to the CEO panel. This keynote only scheduled to run until half past the next hour.

6:51 am: First potentially adversarial comments come as Genachowski extols virtues of open internet.

6:53 am: Now back to talking about spectrum. Everyone can breathe now. More oxygen.

Genachowski touts benefits of voluntary incentive auction where broadcasters and others get a piece of the revenue generated by auctioning off their spectrum.

“it’s the right idea at the right time.”

6:55 am: (Methinks wireless industry would prefer mandatory auctions and sooner rather than later.)

6:56 am: Voluntary incentive auctions could raise $30 billion, Genachowski says. “Not pocket change.” Costs of inaction exceed that, he adds.

6:58 am: Genachowski wraps up and hands off to CTIA president Steve Largent.

6:59 am: Largent mentions that NTT DoCoMo was planning to exhibit at CTIA but says they are understandably not here in wake of Japanese quake.

Largent encourages audience to text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate to relief effort.

7:01 am: Largent said he was on plane when he heard about AT&T-T-Mobile deal.

7:02 am: Jim Cramer introduces Ralph De La Vega and other panelists with a hearty “booya”

7:03 am: Cramer: Other than this weekend’s news, how did you like the play, Dan Hesse.

7:03 am: After joking about the elephant in the room, Cramer asks Hesse about the role cell phones have played in recent revolts in the Middle East.

“I think we are going to play a big role in social change,” Hesse said.

7:05 am: Is any government safe from power of tech, even China, Cramer asks.

“I think mobility creates democracy,” AT&T’s De La Vega. People around the world are speaking and it is our technology that lets it happen.

7:08 am: Cramer: What’s the next equivalent of text messaging — which was huge boom for the industry.

De La Vega says video communication is probably the next big wave. (Of course, video takes up a lot more capacity than texts)

7:09 am: Cramer: Why is my bill so high and why does he have to subsidize the people downloading so many movies.

Verizon’s Dan Mead: First of all, we appreciate your business. Mead says unlimited data plans have been key to fostering growth. However, the whole industry is looking at whether there should be caps or metered use like a water bill.

“It’s certainly an area of interest for the industry,” Mead said.

Hesse is asked if Sprint will have to shift. “Not necessarily,” he said. He notes that home internet is still unlimited, although there clearly is a difference, he said.

“Customers will actually pay a premium for simplicity,” Hesse said. “For now we are monitoring usage very closely” but we are maintaing unlimited.

7:11 am: Cramer asks De La Vega how much of the T-Mobile buy was about spectrum.

De La Vega says it was important, but doesn’t quantify, but notes it’s one of the reasons why the deal is “in the public interest.”

Cramer: Dan Hesse, Do you agree?

Hesse: “My opinion doesn’t matter. I think the FCC and DOJ will have the say on that.”

Notes that if the deal goes through 80 percent of power in two companies.

“i do have concerns that it would stifle innovation and too much power would be in the hands of just too,” he said.

Mead says Verizon is interested and will be observers, but notes that its company was built through acquisitions and that is how it got its spectrum position. “We’ll be watching what goes on here. There may be some things market by market that will be of interest. We are not going to be distracted by this.”

7:11 am: Cramer asks De La Vega how much of the T-Mobile buy was about spectrum.

De La Vega says it was important, but doesn’t quantify, but notes it’s one of the reasons why the deal is “in the public interest.”

Cramer: Dan Hesse, Do you agree?

Hesse: “My opinion doesn’t matter. I think the FCC and DOJ will have the say on that.”

Notes that if the deal goes through 80 percent of power in two companies.

“i do have concerns that it would stifle innovation and too much power would be in the hands of just too,” he said.

Mead says Verizon is interested and will be observers, but notes that its company was built through acquisitions and that is how it got its spectrum position. “We’ll be watching what goes on here. There may be some things market by market that will be of interest. We are not going to be distracted by this.”

7:15 am: Mead said Verizon never really looked at buying T-Mobile.

7:16 am: Cramer asks why his video freezes.

Hesse quips “Because you are on Verizon.”

7:23 am: Cramer: Has AT&T lost a significant number of customers with Verizon getting the iPhone.

De La Vega: Still hasn’t been a quarter. Can’t really comment, he says.

7:31 am: Cramer asks who is a friend and who is an enemy.

Panel lists Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Facebook as all friends, though Facebook could be a “frenemy” if it became its own carrier.

RIM said that Best Buy stores will take pre-orders for the Wi-Fi PlayBooks starting immediately.

“Previews of the BlackBerry PlayBook have generated tremendous excitement and we know that customers are eager to get their hands on one,” RIM’s Craig McLennan said in a statement. “We share that excitement and we are very pleased to announce that customers can begin placing their orders with Best Buy today.”

The April 19 date is a little bit later than the first quarter timing that the company had originally targeted.

Laurent Gil is tired of seeing demos on what augmented reality can do in the future.

That’s not because he doesn’t believe in the potential of the technology. Indeed, the entrepreneur has built his entire company–Viewdle–around the promise of augmented reality. But Laurent says it is time to spend less time talking about pie-in-the-sky visions and more time showing what it can do for people now.

“There’s been a lot of hype around augmented reality,” he said. “A lot of hype usually is a good thing only in the beginning. Then at some point it becomes a question of ‘Does it make my life more useful?’”

Laurent says the industry is at an inflection point where it can now show real applications for the technology. “Showing a demo of what it can be is contributing to the hype,” he said. “Showing a product that is here today is what makes it a reality.”

Augmented reality applications, particularly on the phone, have already begun to make an impact. Word Lens, an iPhone app that translates signs on the fly, was an overnight hit. Other titles have proved popular in both the gaming and retail arenas.

Another popular arena has been applications that allow users to get more information about their location by pointing their phone as they head into an area. Gil said he is not totally sold on that approach. Having to walk down the street while staring at one’s phone, he says, is not exactly natural.

“It’s just not normal,” he says. “It’s not normal enough.”

Augmented reality applications, he said, need to create user experiences that don’t make people totally alter their behavior. Among the areas he sees as taking good advantage of the capability today are gaming companies like Ogmento, which tap a user’s natural surroundings to inform the game but don’t require the player to do a whole lot of awkward motion.

In that case, he said, augmented reality “is a feature that brings reality inside of a game.”

Meanwhile, Gil’s company, Viewdle, plans next quarter to introduce a free Android app, which gives users the ability to recognize and tag who is in the viewfinder, then to share the image with people in their social graph via social networks, social media, email, MMS or SMS.

Gil will be among the participants in a CTIA panel I am moderating on Tuesday addressing the opportunities and challenges of augmented reality. Also on the panel will be Bruno Uzzan of Total Immersion as well as Jay Wright of Qualcomm and Ogmento CEO Ori Inbar.

T-Mobile also announced plans for a new mobile broadband hotspot coming this spring as well as a USB stick modem that will ship this week.

The carrier also announced the first three areas where it will introduce its fastest network technology–a so-called HSPA+42 network. The network is an incremental improvement on the network that T-Mobile already sells as 4G (although from a technology perspective both the current and faster flavors are based on T-Mobile’s existing 3G network).

Las Vegas, New York and Orlando will be the first to get the HSPA+42 network, which offers peak theoretical speeds double the fastest speeds available on its current “4G” network. Chicago will follow suit, with 25 markets due to get the speed bump by mid-year.

T-Mobile’s announcements follow those from rival Sprint, which earlier on Monday announced plans to offer a version of the Nexus S that runs on its Wi-Max-based 4G network. In a further tie-up with the search giant, Sprint also said that it will enable Google Voice to run on its complete lineup of CDMA-based smartphones.

There was also device news from T-Mobile’s would-be merger partner, AT&T, which announced plans for its first 3-D smartphone, the LG Thrill 4G. It will also carry an additional Windows Phone–HTC’s HD7S, notable for being the largest-screen device in AT&T’s lineup of Windows phones. The move comes as Sprint is due to begin selling the Arrive, its first Windows Phone. Both the Arrive and HD7S will come pre-loaded with Microsoft’s NoDo software update that adds copy and paste abilities.

The phone maker, whose presence in the U.S. smartphone market is already small, has announced it plans to move away from its Symbian operating system in favor of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7. The company has high hopes of boosting its presence in the U.S., but its first Windows Phone devices won’t be ready until late this year, at the earliest.

And it’s at least as awkward a time for T-Mobile USA, which was already struggling as the No. 4 carrier and now has announced plans to be sold to AT&T.

So, perhaps it is only fitting that the two parties gathered in Orlando for what has to be one of the more awkward press conferences I’ve attended in a decade and a half of covering tech.

Drawing reporters to the Crave family restaurant on the outskirts of a suburban mall, the Finnish cell phone maker announced plans with T-Mobile to start selling the Astound, a rebranded version of the company’s Symbian-based C7 smartphone.

With a small stage separating the reporters from the smattering of patrons enjoying dinner, the company showed off the device, which features decent hardware including an eight-megapixel camera, along with the same Nokia store and services that few Americans have heard of.

But what it lacks in brand power, the companies hope it can make up for with value. Indeed, the Astound’s tagline is “Smart Phone. Smart Price.”

Nokia representatives said the company is aiming to reach those moving up from feature phones by offering the product inexpensively–$79, with data plans starting as low as $10 a month (a dollar less than an order of the calamari goes for on the other side of the divider.)

For those tempted by the phone, it goes on sale early next month. For those looking to catch happy hour at the Crave, it’s Monday through Thursday from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.

At least that’s the perspective of Steve Largent, the former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver and U.S. congressman who now heads the trade group that puts on the event.

“This is still the No. 1 show for the wireless industry, particualrly the wireless industry in North America,” Largent told Mobilized by phone this week, adding that the show floor will take up 300,000 square feet, the most since he joined the group in 2003.

That said, the organization is shaking things up for 2012, moving its event later in the year–to May–and changing the location to New Orleans. Largent insists it wasn’t a direct impact from CES and Mobile World Congress, but said that exhibitors did want an event that was later in the year.

“They’ve told us they want more opportunity to unveil their back-to-school and year-end products and services and we are going to give them that opportunity in May.”

As for next week’s event in Orlando, one of the highlights is likely to be the opening keynote on Tuesday which features top executives from the top four cellular carriers duking it out on stage in a forum moderated by CNBC’s Jim Cramer.

“I think our CEOs are a little nervious about having Jim Cramer be the emcee,” Largent said, but added the format should give the audience a great time and a good snapshot of where the industry is at.

Mobilized will be at the CTIA event all next week, providing lots of on-the-ground coverage from the event as well as moderating a panel on augmented reality.

Of course, no conversation with Largent would be complete without talking about policy concerns, so we also chatted briefly about taxes and spectrum issues.

Getting more spectrum for his industry continues to be the main issue for the CTIA, Largent said. Things are largely where they stood when Mobilized chatted with Largent back in December, with one slight negative being the stance taken by the National Association of Broadcasters.

“The biggest thing that is new and slightly disturbing has been NAB’s reaction and their growing hostility to having an auction of spectrum they now have and are not using,” Largent said. Still, Largent said he is hopeful some middle ground can be reached enabling more spectrum to be auctioned off sooner.

“I think some accommodation will be made for the broadcasters, but we desperately need that spectrum and need to get it teed up sooner rather than later,” he said.

As for tax issues, Largent said he is pleased that once again the House has taken up a measure that would put a freeze on new wireless taxes for the next five years. Wireless consumers, he said, pay on average 16.3 percent of their monthly bill in various taxes and fees.

“We think that is more than enough,” Largent said.

“We will continue to make every effort to provide the most powerful, well-designed and productive mobile device to customers,” Executive Vice President Lee Don-Joo is quoted by Yonhap as saying.

A Samsung spokesman told the outlet the release plan for the Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1 has not been affected, but declined to say when the device will ship.

Those without short-term memory problems will remember that there was also some kerfuffle regarding translated comments out of Korea about how well the original Galaxy Tab was selling to consumers, with initial reports quoting Samsung as saying the sell-out had been slow and later reports contradicting that. (That didn’t stop Apple CEO Steve Jobs from using the original quote in his slideshow at this week’s iPad 2 event, however.)

Of course, no matter what Samsung says, Apple has certainly made life more difficult for all rivals, including Samsung. Apple has made its device super thin, even according to Samsung and, of course, it has managed to keep prices the same. So, while Samsung may be going ahead with plans to release the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab as scheduled, it may well have to rethink just how it will price the device.

Samsung certainly isn’t giving up on tablets. Indeed, the company hinted on Friday that it will soon add another member to the Galaxy Tab family, which already includes the 7-inch model that has been on sale since last year. An invitation to journalists for an event at the CTIA show in Orlando later this month suggests that an 8.9-inch model is also on its way. The invite makes several references to “78910″ and since Samsung has 7-inch and 10-inch models, it seems logical the “89″ part refers to an 8.9-inch model. A Samsung representative declined to comment on that interpretation of the invite.

Today the the CTIA, the wireless industry trade organization, got behind the president’s plan in a big way, and suggested that the proposed spectrum auctions could bring in billions of dollars more than the president said. Using data from 13 prior spectrum auctions as a model, the organization today released the findings of a study conducted in partnership with the Consumer Electronics Association saying that an auction of 120 MHz worth of spectrum could produce revenue in the range of $36 billion to $48 billion.

The study also found that only in the top 30 markets in the continental United States will TV stations actually have to exit certain spectrum ranges to clear up sufficient spectrum for wireless broadband. In most cases, TV broadcasters will probably be satisfied with incentive auctions that give them some portion of the proceeds raised from the auctions. In a few cases it will be trickier, and the study suggests a few options like channel-sharing and repacking. Broadcasters outside the top 30 markets should not have to give up any spectrum, the study says.

The point of the study, CTIA president Steve Largent told me, is to help nudge Congress toward passing a law that will allow the Federal Communications Commission to hold incentive auctions that can help spur TV broadcasters who currently have the licenses for the spectrum. So far, broadcasters have signaled that they’re not yet entirely willing to go along with this plan. “We think this can be relatively painless for the broadcasters, but it’s still going to take a lot of work at Congress and at the FCC to get it done,” Largent said.

That the wireless industry would be getting behind Obama’s plan is no surprise given their exploding spectrum needs for data services, so there is a bit of a grain-of-salt element to the study’s findings. However it’s also a solid signal that the wireless carriers are willing to bring serious cash to bear for spectrum, which is, generally speaking, good news for all concerned.

Broadcasters are understandably taking a cautious line. In a statement issued last week in response to Obama’s speech in Michigan, Dennis Wharton, executive vice president of the National Association of Broadcasters said, “Let’s not forget that broadcasters returned more than a quarter of TV station spectrum to the government less than two years ago, and that much of that spectrum has not yet been deployed. NAB is not against the President’s plan. We will work to ensure that incentive auctions remain truly voluntary, and that broadcasters who don’t volunteer to return spectrum–and the millions of viewers that we serve–are held harmless.”

Its 2010 lobbying spend was about $1.6 million. (Microsoft’s was $6.9 million.) But while it might seem that any lobbying Apple might need to do in Washington could be easily accomplished by a phone call from one of its directors–one in particular–evidently that’s not the case. Because the company has hired a new lobbying firm to help deal with its D.C. concerns: Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock.

It’s not clear why Apple hired the firm; lobbying disclosures say only that it will handle “innovation” issues for the company, and sources I’ve spoken with seem unaware of any big legislative pushes the company might be mulling. That said, Fierce, Isakowitz and Blalock is a formidable lobbying firm with a number of executives who did stints in the Bush administration and the Republican National Committee, and a client list that includes some very big names: Coca-Cola, CTIA, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Ford, Time Warner and Oracle.

Think Larry Ellison got a referral fee?

That, after all, is what it was built for.

But a looming challenge is how to tailor both the phones and their marketing to make them more appealing to all those mainstream users who are buying their first smartphone.

For Sprint, one step in this process has been the creation of Sprint ID–a system that lets phone buyers customize their device with one or more themed “packs,” which install a series of themes, widgets and applications with a single click.

Sprint launched the effort back at the CTIA show in October, but is now getting up to speed by both adding more devices compatible with Sprint ID and by lining up some brand-name content. This week, Sprint announced a new MTV-themed pack that combines news from MTV, music from Pandora and an app that helps highlight new artists based on social networking trends.

There’s clearly some room here for device makers and carriers. Even Google’s Andy Rubin, the father of Android, concedes that thus far Android has been best suited for techies.

“I would probably characterize Android as it is today as an early adopters’ platform,” Rubin said at last week’s D: Dive Into Mobile. “It’s for the tech enthusiast and people who are married to the tech enthusiast.”

That is quickly changing, though, with Android making up a greater and greater percentage of phone sales at Sprint and elsewhere.

“You are moving to the mass majority,” said David Owens, Sprint’s vice president of consumer marketing. “That’s not a group of people that are going to go in and customize their device.”

Sprint ID allows them to pick an interest and get all kinds of related content. From there, users can uninstall components or add other applications, but Owens said it gives users a starting point and Sprint a way to stand out from the competition.

Initially, Sprint ID packs were offered as options on two Android models, and more recently Sprint added the lower-end Optimus S to the mix. Owens said those who have one of the three phones have downloaded, on average, two of the themed packs. Sprint plans to eventually offer Sprint ID on all its Android devices.

Sprint ID opens the door to some alternative revenue possibilities for advertising or sales of premium content, but currently all the packs are free, and Sprint is not banking on much in the way of additional bucks for now.

So far, it has about 15 of the different packs, each geared to specific topics and identities, ranging from the MTV pack, to one for golf enthusiasts to several targeted specifically to Latinos. (Latino MTV watchers who love to play 18 holes needn’t worry–users can install up to six different packs and switch among them.)

What has been lacking until now is much in the way of brand power, though Owens said Sprint hopes to change this with MTV and other packs in the pipeline. He wouldn’t give any hints, but said there should be more announcements by CES.

Yes, that Steve Largent. For those who have been in a dead zone for the past two decades, the former Seattle Seahawks wide receiver went on to become a congressman and has spent the last seven years heading up the wireless industry’s trade association–a 90-person group with an annual budget of nearly $50 million.

It was a fun talk, though he did deflect some of the more divisive questions, including whether the carriers’ differing definitions of 4G is leading to customer confusion. In general, though, Largent showed the same soft hands he had during all those years on the gridiron.

Largent began by talking about his top priorities (spectrum, spectrum and more spectrum, plus a need for no new wireless taxes) and then I jumped in. Here’s an edited transcript of our talk:

On the need for more spectrum: It really is the lifeblood of the industry. It fuels the virtuous cycle….We’ll work with any interested party to get more spectrum. It really is the most critical element to the service that we provide.

What a lot of people forget about is how long the process takes to get spectrum to the marketplace. The last two spectrum auctions that we had took somewhere between eight and 11 years to come to market. We simply can’t wait that long. The FCC and the president called for 500 MHz in the next 10 years and 300 MHz of that in the next five years. That is a laudible goal. We’re seeing if we can’t even get more spectrum and get it quicker.

That really is priority 1, 2 and 3 for us as a trade association. It has been this year and it will be until we see that spectrum auctioned.

(Largent then went on to talk about the group’s actual No. 2 and No. 3 priorities, which I will summarize. No. 2 is to keep downward pressure on taxes, such as pushing for a five-year ban on new wireless taxes. No. 3 is all the warm-fuzzy stuff like environmental friendliness and those commercials that tell you to hang up and drive.)

Mobilized: Your organization opposes the extension of net neutrality into wireless broadband. Won’t this eventually mean the end of net neutrality as a whole since everything is heading wireless?

Largent: To me, this all goes back to the first point I was making and that’s this spectrum issue. The reason wireless is unique is because of the limited amount of spectrum we have today. To alleviate that, we have to have more spectrum and the more spectrum we have, the more services we have and the necessity of managing our network becomes less severe.

Until we get to that point–and we are not there yet–we have to have the ability to manage our network. If we don’t, you could have 911 calls blocked or people’s calls from their kids in college blocked or emergency alerts blocked and that’s not the system anyone wants to see.

You’ve been at the group since 2003, so you have seen some generation shifts. How would you say the 3G to 4G transition is going, relative to past transitions?

I think it is going very well. I think it is actually going faster. This is a quantum leap, going from 3G to 4G, and it takes an incredible amount of investment. We’ve seen the first of the 4G technologies with Sprint. We see Verizon coming on very quickly this year. AT&T is following closely on their heels. T-Mobile, they have some real spectrum constraints and yet they are coming on very quickly as well.

What do you make of the fact that different companies are using different definitions of 4G. Do you think there is some risk that if your members don’t use that term to mean the same thing that consumers won’t understand the benefits of true 4G?

No. What I would tell you is this is a highly competitive marketplace. What these individual companies do in terms of marketing their plans for 4G and their services and how quickly they are available to customers, that’s a competitive practice and a competitive field. I’m not going to weigh in on that. That’s a place I am not going to go.

Obviously wireless is one of the most competitive areas, with customers looking for new services and devices every couple of years, and a lot of money is spent driving to retain and attract new users. It seems like attacks have gotten sharper in the past few years. Do you think there is more energy going into attacks, or is that just the way the game is played?

There’s a lot of sharp elbows in any competitive industry like ours and that’s not something I am embarrassed about. I’m actually very proud of the fact of how competitive our carriers are with each other. It goes beyond the carriers to handset makers to application providers. There is a lot of competition going on in this space.

The other thing to look at is the amount of money that they are spending to advertise their services. I think three of our four carriers are in the top ten of advertising. It’s very competitive, and those elbows do get sharp.

Since, I’m new to the wireless beat, I asked some of my colleagues to come up with some good, topical questions. Here’s what one came back with: The 1983 playoff win against the Dolphins was one of the most exciting and surprising games ever played. Do you agree?

I can tell you that 1983 was when this trade association came into existence….That game was very exciting–Dan Marino was a rookie that year.

“Some people leave, some get promoted and some good people arrive.”

Yes, indeedy, and this afternoon, it was David Katz’s turn to say goodbye. He was Yahoo’s VP for Mobile, North America. (He is pictured here, and you can read his bio here.)

The move, said sources, is part of a reorganization in the wake of the departure of David Ko, SVP Audience of Mobile and Local, North America.

He was replaced by Raymond Stern, who also heads business development.

If it seems a little confusing, it is because it is.

But there are all kinds of management rejiggering discussions going on after the additional departures of U.S. head Hilary Schneider and Media VP Jimmy Pitaro.

Mobile is an important arena for Yahoo, as Bartz also stressed in the call today.

Let’s hope Dave lands somewhere good, as he seems so nice from this recent video from the CTIA conference just two weeks ago, posted by Yahoo:

But there aren’t yet many devices that use Mobile DTV chips, and TV stations have been slow to adopt the technology.

Since May, a group of 800 broadcasters, called the Open Mobile Video Coalition, has been testing Mobile Digital Television around Washington, D.C.. Nine broadcasters in the area are transmitting 23 TV channels of local content, such as news and sports, to about 400 participants who got devices like cellphones and portable DVD players equipped with Mobile DTV chips. At the fall CTIA wireless trade show last week, the group said 65 percent of the people used Mobile DTV on a daily basis, with 22 percent accessing it three or more times a day. Local news viewership dominated all other categories, the test found.

Backers of the Mobile DTV technology have viewed it as a way for broadcasters to stay relevant as consumers becoming increasingly mobile, and are banking on local broadcasts of things such as news and sports to propel the service.

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