• CERAWEEK
  • March 10 - 14, 2025

Ed Knapp

American Tower Corporation

Chief Technology Officer

Ed Knapp is the corporate CTO for American Tower. He is responsible for leading the company’s global innovation program, technology investments and strategy.

Prior to joining American Tower in 2017, as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Qualcomm, Ed Knapp was responsible for their New Jersey Corporate Research Center from which he managed a diverse engineering team with researchers and product engineering staff across India, Israel and the US. Mr. Knapp has more than 38 years of communications technology experience with over 30 years invested in the development of the global wireless industry from 1G to 5G, including CxO leadership roles in 3 start-ups.

At Qualcomm, Ed established the FSMTM small cell product line and managed advanced R&D projects including mmW 5G, mobile & vehicular device to device (V2X) technology, localization technology as well as various licensed and unlicensed spectrum applications. Ed joined Qualcomm with the acquisition of OFDMA leading start-up Flarion Technologies in 2006. Before joining Flarion, Knapp was the chief technology officer of PacketVideo Corporation, a pioneer in delivering end to end multimedia software for streaming of MPEG4 video to mobile devices. Prior to PacketVideo, Knapp co-founded and served as the senior vice president of engineering and chief technology officer of the MVNO operator NextWave Telecom, Inc. Mr. Knapp also served as the executive director of technical services for Bell Atlantic/NYNEX Mobile (Verizon Wireless) where he was responsible for design, buildout and operation of the New York Metro area 1G and 2G cellular system.

He received a master's of business administration from Columbia University, his master's of science degree in electrical engineering from Polytechnic University (NYU) in New York, and a bachelor's degree in engineering from Stony Brook University. Ed currently has 5 granted US patents and 1 pending application.

Sessions With Ed Knapp

Wednesday, 11 March

  • 07:30am - 08:20am (CST) / -

    5G: The new connective tissue of energy

    Innovation & Technology

    For the last few years, 5G has evolved with greater implications in energy, oil and gas, and industrials with strong potential economic contributions for those sectors. What is on the road ahead for 5G, especially in energy, smart grid, oil and gas, and industrial IoT? How will 5G drive Industry 4.0? What is the role of policy makers in propelling the 5G Economy? What are the occurring developments and dependencies in the overall 5G ecosystem?