The company is also increasingly trying to off-load traffic from 3G or 4G networks to Wi-Fi networks wherever available. AT&T currently has thousands of hotspots around the world, but there are some software issues, standards and protocols that need to be ironed out, Prabhu said. For example, the transition of a connection from a 4G network to Wi-Fi is not yet where AT&T wants it to be, and the company is addressing that.

An improvement could also come with the possible follow-up to LTE called LTE-Advanced, which Prabhu said is generally viewed as a software-only upgrade. But the industry is looking forward to the next air interface that will succeed LTE, and research for that standard is ongoing, Prabhu said.

"When we use cloud services it's not just the throughput, it's very low latency, then I think the big frontier is going to be the next-generation of devices, but also the next air interface, something beyond LTE," Prabhu said. "I do believe you will see something on that front over the next five years."

Prabhu has a lot to worry about everyday, including keeping the network secure, meeting capacity and expanding coverage. The company is also looking into technologies like small cells to expand coverage and white spaces to get more spectrum as it tries to bring the network and cloud services closer.

"I think there will be advances in antenna technology, there will be advances in different carriers, and how can a device pick up different carriers spread over broader spectrum. All of these things will have to be done at a lower cost, it has got to be smaller and more powerful. There will be progress and I think we will use every bit of spectrum we have," Prabhu said.