Engadget recently had the opportunity to sit down with AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega and as you would expect there was plenty of iPhone related talk. After reading the interview, it seems they have covered just about everything you could hope to learn with topics including the recent reception issues, future updates, dropped calls, the App Store as well as some of the current competition. They even touched a little on the current status of 3G availability.

Chris: Okay. Can you talk a little bit about the status of your 3G buildout? Where are you with that?

Ralph: Yeah. We actually have more than 320 cities that are now 3G capable [AT&T has written us to let us know that they're actually at 350+. -Ed.]. We’re going to continue to increase the number of cities, the number of the population that’s covered, and we’ll be finishing this year converting the frequency band that is used in some major cities for 3G from 1900 to 850, so by the end of the year, we’ll finish San Francisco, we’ll finish parts of New York, and then that’ll bring the best technology 3G on the best backbone to significantly improve the quality and the coverage for 3G on our network.

Of course, I do say “just” about everything because unfortunately some topics such as legal iPhone tethering are still not being mentioned. Bottom line, if you are, or are considering becoming an AT&T customer and have an interest in the “current events” you may want to check out the interview. Sadly though, he did not reveal any breaking news. Also, some of his answers (as you would expect) were short and to the point, closely resembling a no-comment. Nonetheless, it was a great read.

[engadget]