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Mar. 6, 2008

AT and T announces that it has set aside $1 billion to upgrade its international network in 2008.

The carrier said it plans to double what it spent in 2006 and more than 30 percent higher than 2007’s network investments.

The $1 billion will go toward expanding AT&T’s global network reach and capacity, and to upgrading wireless networks to handle new technologies.

Some of those new technologies will be Internet protocol services, such as voice transmissions and similar services.

Ron Spears, group president of AT&T Global Business Services said “overall, companies worldwide are responding to the exploding need to deliver voice, data and video in real time to their end-users, no matter where they are, no matter what the device is.”

Spears added “it is vital that we continue to invest in those markets and services to meet this demand so that our customers can connect their operations, partners and suppliers.”

AT&T said these network investments will help it continue to capitalize on the ongoing shift in network traffic from voice to data, and IP-based data as customers migrate from legacy packet networks to MPLS-based VPNs and managed applications.

AT&T customers can currently make calls on six continents and in more than 200 countries, and access wireless data roaming in more than 145 countries.

The phone and data services carrier said its network upgrade plans include:

New sub-sea fiber-optic cable capacity to Japan and Asia

New core MPLS routers in Europe, Asia and the United States

Net-to-net connections to extend reach into high growth markets

AT&T said these high growth markets are in the Asia Pacific region, Eastern Europe and South America.

The carrier will also be increasing data center hosting capacity, better integrating and developing unified communications capabilities from its recent acquisition of Interwise, and will be offering global IP-based audio-conferencing services.

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Source: AT&T.

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