AT&T’s director of next-generation services, data product realization Roger Smith has suggested during the Symbian Partner Event in San Francisco that in the future, the company could use Symbian for their self-branded smartphones.

Presently, the carrier powers their gadgets with a Java-based operating system, which has been deemed by Smith as not having been quite successful until now.

Currently, the Symbian operating system is the most widely used one where cell phones are concerned, with the devices usually working on Nokia's S60 user interface. Nokia has recently purchased Symbian and has revealed their plans to open-source the operating system under the Symbian Foundation, which AT&T has announced it would be joining.

AT&T has yes to give out information concerning the date when their self-branded smartphones would be introduced or who would be manufacturing the gadgets, although rumor has it that HTC is a highly likely choice.

AT&T Incorporated is the largest provider of local and long distance telephone services, DSL Internet access and wireless service in the United States, having 71.4 million wireless customers, while their total number of subscribers amounts to 150 million.

This year, the carrier was honored at the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for having developed coaxial cable technology.

The Symbian operating system, designed by Symbian Limited, is an OS that targets mobile devices, providing associated libraries, user interface frameworks and reference implementations of common tools.

Previous to the platform having been bought by Nokia, it was owned by the former (56.3%), Ericsson (15.6%), Sony Ericsson (13.1%), Panasonic (10.5%) and Samsung (4.5%).