Cell Carriers Show Little Interest in CES

Wireless carriers will have a lower profile than in previous years at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show, one of the largest technology conventions in the world.

The carriers will have booths on the show floor at CES 2012, which will start on Jan 8 in Las Vegas (NV). But Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile won’t deliver keynote speeches. That means they are unlikely to make major announcements about handsets or their networks at the conference. Their lack of more active involvement is unusual, as each company has in the past used C.E.S. as a stage for announcements. Of the big four, AT&T will be the only major American carrier actively participating. Several executives, including Ralph de la Vega, AT&T’s chief executive, will speak at the company’s annual developers summit, which will be held at the show. The low profile of the three other big carriers suggests that they may be leaning toward smaller, more focused trade shows like the Mobile World Congress, which centers on the mobile industry, or CTIA, hosted by the Wireless Association, said Charles S. Golvin, an analyst with the research firm Forrester.