AT&T outlined a $1 billion international fiber expansion—matching last year’s investment and “making good” on a promise to improve its busi- ness connectivity despite the economic downturn.
The slate includes undersea capacity upgrades to Asia Pacific, Australia, India and parts of the Americas as well as expanded local area network services in China, India, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.
The carrier also expects to boost regional data center capacity in Hong Kong and Tokyo.
“Regardless of size, the companies that seize the power of Internet protocol technology and services to transform their businesses are the companies that will be best positioned to lead the global recovery,” explained AT&T Business Solutions CEO Ron Spears.
The carrier previously raised eyebrows by shaving $3 billion from its 2009 capex plans to $17 billion.
But the new announcement means enterprise promises will be met, including an expansion of its Synaptic Hosting cloud services platform in five data centers internationally. The carrier also singled out Cisco Systems as a likely vendor win, vowing to deploy “more Cisco CRS1 routers on key routes.” The expansions are also expected to pay off in continued growth of its wireless IP access business, which grew 14% in the fourth quarter despite erosion elsewhere.
Other enhancements include augmentations to its applications perform- ance, digital media, telepresence, VPN and WAN portfolios. AT&T also intends to accelerate enterprise mobility rollouts and boost managed IP telephony services in China and Southeast Asia as well as continue its network integration with IBM. New services are expected to include Wavlength Private Line, supporting long-haul transmissions over multiple protocols including Gigabit Ethernet. The carrier also intends to expand global backbone capacity with additional bandwidth and faster 10G edge gear.
