AT&T Expanding Network in China, India

Focusing on reach and consistency of services, AT&T is
expanding its network into China and other emerging countries in order to improve services to worldwide customers.

“We are aggressively deploying new nodes in China, Croatia, Cyprus, Ecuador,
India, Malaysia, Qatar, Panama and United Arab Emirates,” Chris Rooney,
AT&T’s president of sales, said in a call with reporters today.

In addition to adding its own infrastructure worldwide, AT&T is signing
interconnect agreements with local carriers in Brazil, Canada, China,
France, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

The pacts would help AT&T serve customers that are opening software labs,
manufacturing plants and sales offices outside large industrial centers.

The Bedminster, N.J., carrier also plans several other moves: increasing
Wi-Fi hotspots from 9,200 to 15,000 in nearly 40 countries
by year’s end; expanding DSL into Europe and Asia; adding wired Ethernet
locations worldwide; and testing
WiMAX in three U.S. cities.

The moves are part of a capital plan aimed at supplying IP VPN-based,
hosting, managed services and security to large companies and government
agencies.

In all, AT&T said it will have spent more than $10 billion from 2002 to the
end of this year. The figure includes the costs of new network hardware and
software as well as back-end integration work.

Rooney said the company does not release future spending estimates, but
noted that areas such as Voice over Internet protocol and mobility will figure prominently in future decisions.

AT&T’s investment in wide area network services is a wise one,
industry watchers say. In a research report issued this week, Forrester
predicted that the WAN services market will
grow at a compound annual growth rate of between 4.5 percent and 6.5
percent over the next five years.

Others expected to benefit from the trend include large carriers Equant, the
combined BT/BT Infonet, as well as second-tier players Telefonica,
Singapore Telecoms and Global Crossing, Forrester said.