DALLAS, May 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Companies of all sizes are accelerating their use of IP networks, cloud and mobility services to help them rethink and transform the way they govern and conduct their business, Ron Spears, AT&T Business Solutions (ABS) President and CEO said today.

Addressing more than 70 global industry analysts during a two-day conference hosted at AT&T's* world-renowned Network Operations Center in Bedminster, N.J., Spears said that over the past 12 months, AT&T has installed hundreds of managed Telepresence rooms for companies globally, migrated two-thirds of its large business customers to IP-based networks, doubled its unified communications business, and increased its sales of network-based firewalls by 46 percent.  

The company also announced on Monday it is creating a new business within ABS to accelerate the delivery of advanced mobile enterprise applications and solutions to businesses and organizations of all sizes, both nationally and globally.

AT&T Business Solutions is managing nearly 4 million more mobile subscribers compared to a year ago. Today, more than half of AT&T's corporate mobile subscribers are using integrated devices, and 1 out of every 2 new AT&T business subscribers activate on a smartphone.

Integrated device sales, in turn, are fueling the expansion of mobile applications used by companies across an array of industries in the retail, finance, healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing sectors. Moreover the number of enterprises deploying AT&T mobile applications has more than doubled to over 2,500 companies in various sectors.  

"In spite of a pressured economy – or in some instances, because of it – companies large and small are transforming their businesses by adopting network-based and mobility services and solutions that are dramatically increasing their efficiency and productivity," said Spears.  

At the same time, "companies are rapidly deploying devices, services and solutions to seize the revenue opportunity made possible by their end-users' desire to do business and conduct transactions anytime, anywhere, to any device," Spears added. As a result, "businesses everywhere are dramatically rethinking and re-engineering their business models. We're seeing this in virtually every industry that we serve."

These and other customer trends contributed to the nearly 15 percent YOY increase in business-related strategic services revenues reported by AT&T in the first quarter of 2010. Strategic services include AT&T's most advanced solutions -- Ethernet, VPNs, hosting, IP conferencing and applications services. VPN revenues alone in the first quarter increased more than 16 percent. Earlier this year, AT&T said that it plans to invest approximately $1 billion in 2010 to help scale the delivery of applications, mobility and cloud services for global companies, to expand small business services within the United States and to continue extending its network globally.

Delivering on this plan, at today's conference AT&T said that it is:

• Expanding its AT&T Telepresence Solution global footprint to a total of 75 countries, which represents a doubling of the number of countries served. More than 100 companies and organizations worldwide now have access to the AT&T Business Exchange and can connect to one another via more than 1,100 Telepresence endpoints worldwide. Additionally, AT&T Telepresence Solution customer Marriott International Inc. today announced that its GoThere Virtual Meetings public telepresence rooms are available at the New York Marriott East Side Hotel, the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel, the JW Marriott San Francisco Union Square, Renaissance Washington, DC Downtown Hotel, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott.
• Extending its A-List feature to enterprise mobility customers of all sizes, which provides corporate mobility users unlimited mobile calling to and from up to 10 "VIP" domestic phone numbers from any U.S. carrier.
• Helping qualified global enterprise customers simplify their mobile environment with custom mobile management services. AT&T Global Mobile Management Services will support a customer's mobile service management needs through multi-carrier management, standardized operations and consolidated reporting.
• Launching a new network-based security solution – AT&T Secure E-mail Gateway Service – that provides e-mail security and message management by ensuring the integrity of a message before it enters an organization's network, and helping to monitor and act on all outbound email containing content that violates data loss prevention policies.

AT&T also highlighted two significant customer wins announced today.

• A three-year, $90 million deal with Shell to provide an enterprise-wide unified communications service (UC) to support Shell's 150,000 users in more than 90 countries.  The solution is the largest UC technology deployment to date by AT&T for a single business customer. The UC services are part of the overall estimated $1.6 billion multiyear strategic sourcing agreement signed in 2008, when Shell selected AT&T to manage a significant part of its IT infrastructure and telecoms services.  
• Blizzard Entertainment has awarded AT&T a multimillion dollar deal to serve as a hosting provider for the company in North America and to supply hosting and content distribution services, as well as voice and data services for its global call centers.

In addition, executives from two customer companies – Coca Cola Enterprises and Interceptor – are on hand today to highlight solutions developed with AT&T:  

• Interceptor CEO John Ruocco talked about the application developed by his company to help reduce drunk driving. The company recently introduced the Interceptor - M1, a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock Device (BAIID) that measures Breath Alcohol Concentration (BAC) in drivers and uses AT&T's wireless network for real-time transfer of recorded data, including user photos and current GPS location, to local authorities.
• AT&T provided Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) with components for a mobile merchandising platform. Arming 11,000 U.S. merchandisers with smartphones, this new wireless solution directs CCE merchandisers to the right stores to merchandise the right product. The real time connection enables instant information exchange for the merchandisers with CCE's back office systems. CCE also deployed nine Telepresence sites around the world to enrich Executive Communications. These sites proved especially useful when the Iceland volcano eruption shut down air travel last month, allowing CCE to continue preparations for its Board of Directors meeting via Telepresence.  

Over the next two days, AT&T will be offering industry analysts multiple presentations that provide a detailed view of the mobility services and applications, global networking, cloud computing and managed services and service bundles that the company today offers to its more than 3 million business customers. In addition, AT&T Labs technologists will share insights into how AT&T is driving the next wave of innovation in business services.

AT&T Business Solutions serves every Fortune 1000 company and has operations across 6 continents worldwide. In addition, the company is now serving the majority of companies who comprise the leading European exchange indices (FTSE – 52%; DAX – 83% and CAC 40 – 86%). ABS serves customers ranging from the largest and multinational companies to small businesses operating in multiple cities across the United States.

AT&T's worldwide sales force of nearly 7,500 highly trained professionals is complemented by  more than 13,000 network integration professionals, who today are helping companies design and deploy networks and applications, delivered and supported by AT&T's global IP network, one of the world's most advanced and powerful global backbone networks in the world.

The company is delivering solutions to companies in more than a dozen sectors, including healthcare, education and government. In addition, AT&T's strategic relationship with IBM is among the largest and most successful in the industry – to date, the relationship has delivered more than $1 billion in revenue to AT&T.

AT&T's network provides MPLS-based services to 182 countries over 3,800 service nodes. Its 38 Internet Data Centers (IDCs) connect to the AT&T network in key locations around the world, and deliver and support a wide and growing range of advanced services globally.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest 3G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet and voice services. A leader in mobile broadband, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T | DIRECTV(SM) brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising. In 2010, AT&T again ranked among the 50 Most Admired Companies by FORTUNE® magazine. 

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