During a press event at CTIA, Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T Mobility, hinted about a possible collaboration between the telecom giant and Google, regarding the Android, the mobile operating system.

"I like it a lot more than I did before," said Ralph de la Vega. "It's something we would want in our portfolio."

The Android platform was officially launched last year, on November 5, as a result of a collaboration between Google and HTC, Intel, Motorola, T-Mobile, NVIDIA and Qualcomm, with one sole purpose: to develop open standards for mobile devices. Google is working on boosting the quality of Web browsing, enhancing the audio and video experience for mobile phones.

In February, at the GSM Mobile World Conference in Barcelona unveiled the first prototype of a mobile phone especially designed for Google’s Android operating system, but neither Google nor the chip makers would say when a smart phone running Android will hit the consumer market.

In December, Verizon Wireless announced it would join Google’s Open Handset Alliance and thus, support and probably promote the Android Open Source Platform for mobile phones. T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel are also members of OHA.

Back in November, when Android was unveiled, de la Vega expressed his concern that Google will use Android mainly to promote its own applications. But he changed his mind after he saw how the platform has evolved.

"We in fact will be able to take the Android open-source code and put our own apps and features on an Android device," de la Vega said. "They're going to open it up and allow us to be able to customize what an Android device looks like to our customers." There are reports that the South Korean companies Samsung and LG will unveil phones based on Google’s Android mobile phone software platform by the end of this year in the United States.

AT&T is the exclusive US carrier for iPhone and during the event de la Vega hinted that a 3G iPhone is just months away.