AT&T to Launch High-Speed Service
internetnews.com
[September 10, 1998--USA TODAY] AT&T is expected to
launch within a month a major high-speed communications
service that will let many of its 10 million business customers cut
costs by combining their phone and computer networks.
Code-named AT&T INC--for Integrated Network Connect--it
won't actually be available to customers until 1999, people close
to the project tell USA TODAY.
Sprint unveiled a similar service, called ION, three months ago.
And newer carriers such as Qwest, Level 3 and IXC also plan
to carry voice and data on a single network. AT&T
spokeswoman Kate Rankin declined to comment on the launch,
saying: "We are still testing the service. We are not ready to go
into any level of detail."
But the rollout of the network would be a major step in CEO C.
Michael Armstrong's overhaul of AT&T, and a bellwether of
industry change. Armstrong is racing to reengineer the USA's
largest carrier as the focus of telecommunications shifts from
voice to transmitting video, voice and data.
Armstrong already has gained the industry's attention from
high-profile deals to buy Teleport Communications Group and
Tele-Communications Inc., and to partner with British Telecom.
The overhaul of AT&T's network is just as important. AT&T
will deploy an Internet-like digital technology known as ATM,
for asynchronous transfer mode. It converts information into the
ones and zeros of computer language, breaks it into tiny pieces,
stamps them with an address and sends them into a shared
transmission line.
The technology also is at the heart of Sprint's $2 billion ION
service. ATM and IP are more efficient than traditional phone
lines, which reserve a separate circuit for every call, and the
quality is improving.
The new service will offer AT&T and its customers two major
benefits, analyst Ken McGee of The Gartner Group market
research firm says:
Lower prices. AT&T's bids for corporate contracts are
5% to 12% higher than those of MCI and Sprint, McGee
says. AT&T could start to close the gap in a year or two.
More flexibility. ATM allows customers to instantly order
phone lines, high-speed data lines or features with the
click of a computer mouse.
It also will let AT&T expand its consulting businesses, giving it
the ability to monitor customer networks with sophisticated
ATM devices it installs on their premises. That sort of
entrepreneurial effort is critical for AT&T, which must expand
beyond long-distance to up revenue and stock value.
By Steve Rosenbush, USA TODAY
rCOPYRIGHT 1998 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co.
Inc.
Last modified: Thursday, 10-Sep-1998 13:14:41 EDT
More News
|
