Sommers,
<< Armstrong's move to upgrade to EDGE >>
Do not fret to much about 'T' churn.
totaltele.com
Kate Norton at Bloomberg News - 11 October 1999
AT&T AND BT SPEND $3 BLN TO ACT IN CONCERT
AT&T Corp., the No. 1 U.S. long-distance telephone company, and British Telecommunications Plc, the U.K.'s biggest phone company, said they will invest $3 billion in their Concert venture over the next five years to transmit voice, text and video faster between major cities.
The network, which will use Internet protocol technology, will link about 60 cities by the end of next year and about 100 cities outside the U.S. and U.K. by the end of 2001, said David Dorman, chief executive of the companies' Concert venture, in an interview at the Telecom '99 conference.
"New technology and competition are redefining what is possible in telecommunications and doing it with a speed that was unthinkable a few years ago," said Michael Armstrong, chairman and chief executive of AT&T Corp., at the conference, where the world's top technology companies gather every four years.
BT and AT&T are targeting the more lucrative corporate clients, which spend more on sending documents and using video, to boost profit as new technology and fiercer competition bring prices down.
Concert, a venture that was first announced in 1998, will spend "dramatically in the course of the year 2000, investing probably in the range of $1 billion" on Internet protocol infrastructure, Dorman said.
The venture is spending $100 million this year to install routers and connections in 22 cities.
Concert is expected to unveil more details about its strategy at a press conference at the Telecom '99 industry gathering today.
- Eric - |
