AT&T Readies Big Push Into Business-IP Markets

Thwarted in its attempts to make a profit in consumer-telephony markets, AT&T Tuesday announced its "transformation" and outlined an aggressive rollout of business IP-network enhancements. The firm also revealed that nearly 75 percent of its $34.5 billion revenue in 2003 came from its business customers.

AT&T said it is expanding its IP network in global markets, including China, Thailand, India, Costa Rica, and Mexico, while at the same time opening Internet Data Centers in Frankfurt, Paris, London, and Tokyo. The company also said that it is extending its network disaster-recovery solutions into Europe.

In the U.S., AT&T said it is expanding Wi-Fi and Ethernet locations, and pointed to its new optical-carrier network between San Francisco and Seattle with 40-Gbps capability as an example of the firm's aggressive move to IP.

"We're taking the experience and expertise we've gained through our own ongoing transformation to help enterprise customers with perhaps the most complex networking challenge they face--the eventual migration to all IP," said AT&T president Bill Hannigan in a statement.

The firm indicated it is following its large customers into international markets. AT&T noted that its largest assets outside the U.S. are now in Europe, while it is expanding its global IP network into the Asia-Pacific and Latin American regions. The firm stated that the expansion is evidence of the speed with which it "has transformed its business from a traditional telecommunications bandwidth provider to a leading integrator of enterprise and application networking solutions that leverage the flexibility and ubiquity of IP."Earlier this year, AT&T came out on the short end of a series of court and FCC rulings that make it impossible for it to make a profit in consumer local and long-distance markets; as a result, AT&T has ceased to compete in consumer markets.