AT&T Unveils New Wireless Plans, Mobility Solutions for Businesses
New Service Offers and Calling Plans Deliver Integrated Solutions to Companies Doing Business In the U.S and Around the World
San Antonio, Texas, April 18, 2007
AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced it will begin selling its wireless portfolio of services to all of its business customers and is rolling out the first set of integrated wireline and wireless networking offers to provide companies with access to their data and applications.
Today's announcement illustrates the speed with which AT&T has moved, since the BellSouth merger, to deliver wireless services, devices and capabilities to businesses of all sizes. As of Dec. 31, 2006, revenue from AT&T's enterprise wireless business customers has experienced double-digit growth, compared with the previous six quarters. This revenue growth is driven by strong demand from companies that are increasing their spend for wireless and mobility solutions.
In fact, according to a Forrester survey, 60 percent of companies polled said that they would spend more money on wireless technology in 2006 versus 2005 and that wireless spending will account for 28 percent of their total telecom budget ("Create a Companywide Mobile Policy," Forrester Research, Inc., Aug. 2006.)
Today, AT&T is announcing:
Integrated Offers. AT&T now offers to midsized and large businesses AT&T's full range of wireline and wireless services and devices, delivered via a unified sales force. By midyear, AT&T intends to offer its full suite of wireline and wireless services to business customers under a single contract.
Customers may receive discounts on their wireline services based on a single revenue commitment that takes into account their wireline and wireless calling volumes with AT&T. AT&T can also provide on-net pricing for wireline-to-wireless calling, which means that a customer's wireline calls will receive a special on net rate when calling AT&T-provided wireless or wireline business users.
Small Business Offers. AT&T's small business customers can purchase a quadruple-play package of integrated local, long distance, data and wireless services in the company's 22-state local service region.
Wireless Portfolio. In addition to the integrated offers, midsized and large business customers will now be able to purchase any wireless service or device offered by Cingular (now AT&T). Until now, only certain plans or devices were available to AT&T business customers as part of an integrated offer. All services, plans and devices can be sold on a stand-alone basis or can be integrated within customers' existing AT&T contract.
Cellular Access to Corporate VPNs. Cellular data access has been added as a connectivity option for AT&T Virtual Private Network (VPN) business customers. Now remote and mobile workers can use Wi-Fi or AT&T's wireless data service to access their company's VPN, business applications and corporate information with the same ease enjoyed by their headquarter-based colleagues. Customers can also easily integrate wireless data services with their wide area network, providing truly redundant network architecture. Should the primary wireline connection be interrupted, the cellular connectivity automatically activates, ensuring that critical applications keep running. AT&T's wireless WAN is immediately available and provides a business-continuity option to enterprise customers.
"Our latest service plans and access offerings underscore AT&T's continued commitment to combining increasingly sophisticated enterprise networking solutions with service plans that allow our customers to generate immediate, bottom-line business benefits through fast and reliable access to information and solutions that are customized to meet their unique needs," said Bill Archer, AT&T senior vice president of Product Management.
"Our recent acquisition of BellSouth Corp. and the consolidation of Cingular Wireless has significantly expanded the types of advanced communications services that we can offer to customers, and we look forward to extending our mobile capabilities in 2007."
Today's announcement furthers AT&T's vision of extending the power and possibilities of Internet Protocol (IP)-based converged services to drive productivity, create new business models and keep customers always connected. AT&T is giving businesses unfettered access to its world-class global Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) IP network and all of its inherent intelligence and capabilities so that enterprise customers can drive productivity and access their most important and critical asset  corporate knowledge and information, with employees, partners and suppliers. Ultimately, business customers will be able to order, monitor and manage all of their wireline and wireless services and devices from the award-winning AT&T BusinessDirect® customer portal.
This unprecedented level of access and control to corporate data and applications has become critically important, as today's global business environment forces companies to adopt technologies that enable 24/7 communication with customers, employees and business partners. Today's mobile workforce allows companies to cost-effectively extend their presence around the world and to quickly expand into new markets.
Today, AT&T delivers the broadest international coverage of any other U.S.-based wireless carrier, giving customers the ability to make calls in more than 200 countries and territories and offering wireless data roaming in 125 countries.
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About AT&T
AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at www.att.com.
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