The building of AT&T WorldNet, part III
According to Taylor, of all the service providers, AT&T should be
the company to offer customers telephone rates of less than 10
cents per minute. "In 1996, long-distance service revenues for
AT&T totaled $39 billion, MCI $16 billion and Sprint $8 billion,''
he says. Of the three, AT&T should find economies of scale
within its organization to offer lower rates, he says.
The CERFnet plan
Now that AT&T WorldNet has its Internet service foundation in
place, analysts believe it has
the strength to build a solid, resourceful business. This is
especially true because the company will
be getting additional Internet know-how from TCG CERFnet
once the merger with TCG be-comes final.
TCG has used CERFnet to develop new services, in addition to
integrating its Internet access services with its existing voice
and data offerings. Now AT&T WorldNet will have the
opportunity to leverage TCG to build new services such as data
and voice integration and robust intranet offerings.
The question of how innovative AT&T WorldNet will be has a lot
to do with how it will integrate TCG CERFnet into its existing
business, Taylor says.
While AT&T WorldNet was catching up with the other large
national ISPs, TCG CERFnet was rolling out innovative services
that let business customers use a single T-1 for voice and
Internet access services, he says
AT&T is just starting to show its acceptance of such new and
different services, even though those services might cut into the
company's voice or private line revenues, Taylor says.
While AT&T recognizes that there is a possibility it could lose
money in one area of business, it believes strong revenues will
come from its business IP services. |
