AT&T to spend $1 billion in 2010 to support business services

APRIL 6, 2010 -- AT&T (NYSE:T) says it plans to invest approximately $1 billion in 2010 to scale its 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.

The 2010 investment program for businesses is part of AT&T's overall existing capital plan. The investments target the carrier’s wireless, copper, and optical infrastructure. This last element includes upgrading undersea cable systems.

AT&T says its 2010 upgrade program will focus on:

• Scaling application services, including managed hosting, cloud-based services, telepresence, unified communications, digital media solutions, and security.
• Enterprise mobility applications, which will lead to continued investment in LTE- and Wi-Fi-based applications.
• Vertical industries, in which the carrier will create and deployg applications for the finance, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, education, and government sectors. It also plans to expand its presence in emerging applications such as machine-to-machine communication, fixed mobile convergence, and location-based services, along with mobile platform and portal enhancements.
• Enhancing small business offerings by deploying platforms and systems across its 22-state U.S. footprint to accelerate the provisioning of multiple products and services. AT&T also plans to increase broadband speeds up to 24 Mbps downstream where possible in more than 120 markets across AT&T's 22-state U.S. footprint.
• Global network expansion.

"Despite the continuing challenges of today's economic environment, we continue to deliver on our commitment to provide companies with the network-centric capabilities and applications they need to enhance their operations," said Ron Spears, President and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions. "IP-based solutions and applications have become ever more important to companies aiming to take their productivity to a new level while transforming their operations to adapt to their customers' changing needs."

Specific areas of planned investment include:

1. Global network expansion: Deploy, upgrade or add diverse IPv6-capable MPLS nodes to support Layer 3 VPN and global managed Internet services, including Gigabit Ethernet customer access across multiple locations in Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain and Sweden), Asia Pacific (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Vietnam), and the Caribbean and Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and Peru). The carrier plans to leverage this network expansion to improve capacity and diversity and offer services in new markets, expanding the global OPT-E-WAN service footprint from 31 countries to 37 countries. It also hopes to enhance application reporting and performance management and expand the footprint and capabilities of carrier class switched Ethernet wireless backhaul services. Other plans include:
   • Continue to expand Ethernet over copper deployment over AT&T's U.S. footprint.
   • Introduce a new metro switched Ethernet service across AT&T's 22-state U.S. footprint.
   • Continue to enhance capabilities of managed AT&T Virtual Private Network Services on a global basis.
   • Deploy IPv6-capable MPLS core routers in Hawaii and Guam to provide an interconnection point for transpacific cables between the U.S., Australia, Singapore, China, and Japan.
   • Additional sub sea cable capacity to ensure diversity and resilience. This includes 180 Gbps of new capacity into the Caribbean and South America, over 350 Gbps of new capacity from the U.S. to and within Asia Pacific, and 70 Gbps of capacity from the U.S. to Europe. This capacity will span multiple subsea cables with more diverse cable landings and terrestrial routing into major cities.
2. Emerging mobility applications: Extend offers in three core categories: applications, machine-to-machine (M2M), and integrated network services. AT&T plans to continue to expand its portfolio of mobile applications across multiple vertical industries, focusing on smart grid and mHealth. Other points of emphasis include:
   • Offer enhanced services that take advantage of AT&T's converged fixed and mobile networks including network-based and premises-based fixed mobile convergence and super femtocell technology.
   • Increase support for the more than 750 wireless devices already connected to the AT&T network.
3. Hosting/cloud infrastructure services: Continue to develop and deploy cloud-based managed hosting and Infrastructure as a Service capabilities. Add cloud enablers to AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service that serve as a gateway between customers' storage systems and AT&T's cloud. Introduce new turnkey synaptic hosting (utility computing) products, tailored to small and medium-sized businesses. Add new managed hosting standardized packages, making it faster and easier to turn up AT&T Managed Hosting Services. To support these efforts, AT&T plans to:
   • open an additional internet data center in London.
   • complete expansions of the Ashburn, VA, and Piscataway, NJ, data centers.
4. AT&T Digital Media Solutions: Improve distribution with the addition of a node in Spain and increased capacity in the U.K. and Germany. Add additional software features, such as download manager, to improve customer control and user experience. Improve support for the latest streaming technologies. Broaden range of content creation and management tools and services.
5. Unified communications: For the AT&T Telepresence Solution, install additional telepresence rooms in AT&T offices in: Belgium (Brussels), the UK (Redditch), Slovakia (Bratislava, Kosice), Singapore (Singapore), Malaysia (Cyberjaya), Bangalore and Hinjewadi in India, Brazil (Campinas), and Toronto. Install new AT&T Business Exchange nodes in Hong Kong and Netherlands to provide regional access and expanded support for telepresence services. Also enhance AT&T Connect Global Conferencing capabilities.
6. Customer contact points: Deliver IP-based bundled offers, integrating wireline and mobility portfolios across the 22-state local footprint. Increase broadband speeds up to a maximum of 24 Mbps downstream in more than 120 markets across the 22-state footprint. Consolidate online storefronts a single att.com/smallbusiness storefront, with a consistent look and feel. Expand application service offerings as well as mobility offerings.

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