As corny as it may sound, there was a greater sense of industry togetherness at this year’s NXTcomm08 that I have noticed in recent years, based at least on the keynote sessions that drew both attendees and exhibitors by the thousands at the event.

In the past, I thought the NCTA, CTIA and even VON did a better job of issuing rallying cries because they were more focused shows and, in the cast of NCTA, because the association members didn’t compete with one another.

But virtually every speaker at the NXTcomm08 podium found common ground on significant issues. For example:

Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman, President and CEO focused on the telecom industry’s ability to essentially rescue the global economy and restore prosperity by improving the quality of life, helping make the environment better through telecommuting and telepresense, and benefiting education and medical care. He called on those at NXTcomm08 to work together on the ecosystems to deliver new services.

Telstra Chairman Sol Trujillo emphasized the need for speed and called for the telecom industry to come together on making services more mobile and simpler to use.

Verizon President and COO Denny Strigl told the U.S. broadband industry to stop believing critics who say broadband penetration here is lagging but challenged the industry to provide more bandwidth to consumers.

Cable Labs President Richard Green represented the Evil Cable Empire but still found common ground, encouraging NXTcomm08 attendees to promote American competitiveness by support the U.S. State Department’s efforts in the upcoming ITU-T reorganization, and fighting Net Neutrality legislation.

Infinera President and CEO Jagdeep Singh encouraged more R&D spending in the U.S. to maintain competition and encourage innovation. He encouraged service providers to reward innovation with their contract dollars.

All of it added up into a program designed to inspire, and from my viewpoint, successful in that effort.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.