I've worked on mobile devices in the past but only from the software side and never been on the side of carriers. I was always very far removed from anything that had to do w/carriers. Anyway, I found these articles quite interesting and insightful: Engadget: How an AT&T smartphone comes to life: behind the scenes (part one) Engadget: How an AT&T smartphone comes to life: behind the scenes (part two) These are older but were also interesting: Cnet: A tour of Sprint's Kansas headquarters (photos) Cnet: Inside Sprint's cell phone testing labs (photos) Discuss or post other interesting articles along these lines...
