AT&T chief touts Internet telephony--CBS Market Watch
NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- AT&T Chairman C. Michael
Armstrong declared Thursday that Ma Bell's
recent investments position the company to be a
global leader in technology that "is erasing the
boundaries between televisions, telephones and
personal computers."
Armstrong cited AT&T's (T) incursion
into Internet-protocol technology, which
enables the transmission of various kinds
of data over the Net, its pending
multi-billion purchase of
Tele-Communications Inc. (TCOMA) and
its venture that's in the works with British
Telecom.
"Internet protocol technology gives the
telecommunications industry freedom that
didn't exist a few years ago," Armstrong
said, outlining the company's vision for growth
via Internet telephony in a keynote address at
the fall Internet World trade show in New York.
AT&T plans to exploit that convergence and
remove the obstacles to high-speed access, he
said.
Armstrong said AT&T is the first company to act
as a "global clearing house" for telephony
services. It will offer its services in 140
countries, he said.
Before concluding his remarks, Armstrong saved
time for finger-pointing, calling rival local
telephone companies a threat to the burgeoning
growth of telephony.
Local monopolies, he said, levy more than $10
billion a year in local access charges
Separately, AT&T said it signed agreements with
two Internet companies and cut prices for its
interactive communications services it will
market through those ventures.
The company cut its AT&T Click2Dial
Conferencing, which lets users set up and manage
a conference call on the Web, by 33 percent. The
service now costs 10 cents a minute per person.
AT&T also reduced the cost and waived a 50-cent
setup fee for its Chat 'N Talk service, which
allows chat room participants to make a phone
call to other chatters while retaining
anonymity. It now costs 15 cents a minute, a
10-cent cut.
AT&T cut by 5 cents the price of its Click2Dial
Directories service, which allows web users to
locate someone in AT&T's AnyWho directory and
then auto-dial a call to that person. The
service is now 10 cents a minute.
AT&T said it signed agreements with ChatSpace,
Inc. and Yack!, Inc., to make the services
available at those chat sites.
AT&T said the new relationships expand its
distribution channel through its relationships
with portal sites Excite (XCIT), Infoseek
(SEEK), and Lycos (LCOS).
Shares of AT&T, a component of the Dow Jones
Industrial Average, closed up 1/8 at 58 1/2,
reversing earlier declines, as other big-name
tech-oriented shares tumbled in afternoon
trading. See Silicon Stocks.
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