AT&T announces that it has scored the highest percentage of responses for unaided brand awareness associated with global data Virtual Private Networks in Telemark's most recent Global Brand Appeal survey. A total of 660 data network managers located in 27 countries were asked the question: "When thinking about companies that provide international data VPN (such as IP VPN, VoIP, MPLS, Hosting, Frame Relay, ATM, etc.), which companies come to mind?" The highest percentage of respondents (25 percent) named AT&T in their answers.

AT&T announces that its IP Flexible Reach can now be added to existing key telephone systems. This enables SMBs to transition to VoIP without having to replace their legacy systems. IP Flexible Reach, which is available nationwide, uses VoIP technology and enables unlimited local and on-net calling, as well as competitive long distance and international calling plans. VoIP reduces costs by converging voice and data over a single IP connection and maximizes bandwidth usage over existing networks.

AT&T announced the ability to call internationally at even better values.

Subscribers of AT&T CallVantage Softphone service will receive exclusive new international rates — which are up to 75 percent less than the already low AT&T CallVantage service plan rates — to approximately 40 countries. For example, AT&T CallVantage Softphone customers can call the United Kingdom, Greece, Beijing and Germany each for 2 cents a minute; Mexico City, 3 cents a minute; and New Delhi, 11 cents a minute.

"We know how important it is for families to keep in touch, whether relatives live down the street or across the world," said Anthony Tuggle, vice president of AT&T Voice Services. "As AT&T continues to expand its consumer offerings to better compete in and outside our traditional local service area, consumers are rewarded with compelling value."

Frost & Sullivan selected AT&T as the recipient of the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership in enterprise Wide Area Network (WAN) services in recognition of its ability to achieve a leading position among network operators, as well as market and technology innovation.

"AT&T has been innovative with the range of Global Enterprise WAN services offered, the reach of these services, and the technologies offered," said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Maria Zeppetella. "The company's goal is to be the 'provider of choice' serving MNCs' and governments' global needs for competitive, flexible, and integrated WAN solutions that span the globe."

AT&T announces that Forrester rated it as one of the strongest performers in a thorough evaluation of enterprise-class Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers in The Forrester Wave: US Enterprise-Class VoIP Services, Q1 2007 report. One of the earliest providers of a managed WAN- based VoIP offering, AT&T leads all other providers in planned IP Telephony and VoIP feature enhancements for 2007.

In extensive evaluations of leading telecommunications services providers, AT&T's VoIP offerings secured leadership rankings on many of the most important attributes expressed by enterprise buyers, including breadth of offering, IP PBX product and feature enhancements, flexibility (particularly for VoIP interoperability with key PSTN features), hosted VoIP and IP Centrex services, managed IP PBX; VoIP conferencing; SIP Trunking and managed services.

AT&T and Microsoft announced the availability of AT&T Live Meeting, a hosted Webconferencing service that enables users to communicate and collaborate in real time with a personal computer, an Internet connection and a telephone.

This newest offering in the AT&T Collaboration portfolio builds upon the company's previously announced global strategic alliance with Microsoft, which is focused on the development, deployment and delivery of next-generation, Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications services. AT&T Live Meeting uses Microsoft Connected Services Framework, a server-based product for building and managing complex services using a service-oriented architecture and Web-services interfaces.

"The introduction of AT&T Live Meeting is a milestone in our global alliance with Microsoft," said Shawn Conroy, vice president-Product Management, AT&T. "It provides an additional choice for our customers in Web- conferencing options and allows users to communicate in a media-rich, real- time manner while strengthening their collaboration and productivity."

In recognition of professionals who respond to emergencies and help keep communities safe, AT&T Inc. announced $1 million in contributions to public safety organizations. AT&T provided $750,000 to the Public Safety Foundation of America, Inc. to help first-responders locate more 9-1-1 callers in times of emergency. Additionally, a $250,000 contribution to the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation recognizes the contributions of law enforcement officers and supports the families of officers killed in the line of duty.

"We remain very grateful to the dedicated professionals who work every day to keep our communities safe -- especially law enforcement officers, firefighters and other first-responders," said Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president-External and Legislative Affairs. "We are proud to play a part in helping these professionals and extending our commitment to public safety to include the beneficial programs administered by the Public Safety Foundation of America and the National Fraternal Order of Police Foundation."

Funny Steven Colbert video on Cingular's name change to AT&T, I first saw over at http://saunderslog.com

AT&T has set a new world record in customer satisfaction, according to a report published today by Telemark. Beating off fierce competition from global rivals, such as Deutsche Telekom, Verizon, Orange Business Services, Telefonica and last year's victor, BT, AT&T has successfully raised the bar to become the global data VPN provider deemed most indispensable to customers.

The report, "DataVPN, Raising the Bar" measures customer satisfaction with data VPN services supplied by global operators. The world record is defined as the best-ever annual satisfaction score achieved by a global provider in Telemark's survey of business enterprises. It aims to highlight which suppliers are raising the bar to new levels on a world level.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) today cleared AT&T's merger with BellSouth. AT&T General Counsel James D. Ellis announced, "This unequivocal and unconditional approval underscores the competitive nature of our industry and the pro-competitive benefits of this merger. AT&T is focused on bringing more video choices and next-generation broadband services to as many consumers as possible and our merger with BellSouth will help deliver these benefits to more consumers, more quickly".

Meanwhile, the Competition Coalition, an organization concerned about the remonopolization of the old Ma Bell telephone network, held different throughts, "Unfortunately, by endorsing the largest telecommunications merger in history, the DoJ ignored the interests of consumers and the valid concerns raised by many experts and organizations that the reconstitution of Ma Bell will lead to higher prices, job cuts, violations of customer privacy, and a widening of the digital divide. AT&T, with the help of a complicit government, is poised to control nearly half of the nation’s phone lines, and will also be the largest wireless and broadband Internet company in the country."

AT&T Inc. announced a three-year contract with Internet Security Systems, Inc. (ISS) to upgrade its network infrastructure.

ISS, a pre-emptive enterprise security firm, was an early adopter of AT&T's Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology in 2004. The new contract will extend AT&T MPLS services to ISS locations throughout the U.S., Europe and the Asia Pacific region. ISS will further leverage the network upgrade to add more company locations in the coming years.

AT&T Inc. and Avaya Inc., a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, announced a global strategic alliance to help businesses and government agencies manage through one of the most significant technology evolutions they face - the migration to voice over IP/IP telephony.

The alliance leverages AT&T's industry-leading global IP network, network design and management expertise with Avaya's enterprise IP communications technology to deliver end-to-end managed solutions from the wide area network to the IP phone on the desktop. The solutions provide comprehensive migration to IP telephony and the associated local area network (LAN) and wireless LAN infrastructure.

Vonage the nation's largest provider of VoIP, could now be barred from allowing new customers to sign up. This is because Vonage failed to meet the required deadline of the FCC providing customers with reliable emergency 911 (E911) services to its subscribers. AT&T also failed to meet the Monday, November 28th deadline. You can read more about the ruling here "Internet Phone Providers Fall Short on 911".

Aegis Communications Group Inc., a worldwide transaction-based business process outsourcing company, has awarded AT&T a $17 million networking services contract. The five-year agreement renews and expands a longstanding relationship between the two companies and provides Aegis and its clients the benefits of scale and cutting-edge technology.

Aegis enables clients to make customer contact programs more profitable and drive efficiency in back office processes. AT&T will provide Aegis with a network-based Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) solution using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology. The AT&T solution will enable Aegis to transition to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and connect seven of its locations with significantly increased bandwidth and faster speeds.

AT&T has been selected by EJ Prescott Inc., a leading distributor of water, sewer, and drain materials to provide an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) connecting 14 sites located throughout the Midwestern and Northeastern United States. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

AT&T will convert existing Frame Relay sites across Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Ohio and Indiana to Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology, enabling seamless integration of legacy technologies onto a standardized platform. This will also pave the way for the future introduction of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service allowing enhanced communication between divisions, sales and service representatives and customers.