Web Hosting, Virtual Private Network Services, AT and T, Reports Expansive Year

San Antonio, Texas - (The Hosting News) - February 6, 2008 - Web host, Internet services and ISP company, AT and T Inc., has reported the key fourth-quarter achievements which have enhanced its position as an enterprise business solutions provider.

Ron Spears, Group President, AT and T Global Business Services noted, ''We made some strategic moves in the fourth quarter of 2007 and delivered on multiple fronts to continue setting AT and T's Global Business Services on a solid growth trajectory as we move into 2008.''

The achievements include the strategic acquisition of web conferencing leader Interwise, an expanded agreement with IBM, global expansions of AT and T's network footprint, new service introductions and the completed integration of its mobility and wireline sales teams into a single sales force. Last week, AT and T's Global Business Services (GBS) unit announced that recurring enterprise revenues were up 1.8 percent versus the fourth quarter of 2006 -- the strongest growth in this category in years. 2007: A Year in Review During the fourth quarter, AT and T: -- Acquired Interwise, a global provider of Internet Protocol (IP)-based voice, web and video conferencing services and introduced AT and T Connect(SM) -- the first offer in a unified communications portfolio that will continue to expand this year. -- Struck an expanded agreement with IBM that named AT and T as the primary provider of networking services to IBM, with a provision that IBM and AT and T would jointly offer new or additional information technology and telecommunications services to commercial customers that currently hold contracts with both IBM and AT and T. -- Completed the integration of its wireless and wireline sales teams to continue the effort to deliver to business customers the enterprise mobility offerings introduced last April. Since then, GBS has won more than 2,000 new contracts and has generated a significant revenue stream from these offers. -- Was the only network services provider to win a role in all four key federal government contracts: Networx Universal, Networx Enterprise, Alliant and SATCOM-II. The Networx contracts allow AT and T to bid for task orders in the 10-year agreement with a potential value of $20 billion. -- Expanded its presence in countries such as India and Vietnam to further strengthen AT and T's position in emerging global markets. -- Opened two new Internet Data Centers in Piscataway, N.J., and Toronto, Canada. This brings the number of global data centers that AT and T operates to 38. AT and T also added more space to six other centers in the North America, Europe, and Asia because of growing customer demand for managed, hosted services. -- Enhanced its SONET and Ethernet portfolios, which positioned the company to meet the demand for high speed data and video services from Wholesale customers such as wireless carriers, Internet service providers (ISPs) and content providers. -- Expanded its IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) backbone, and deployed new-generation OC-768 technology in its Ultra-Long Haul Network, which is four times as fast as current OC-192 technology.

The above milestones capped a year of strategic accomplishments and significant sales wins for AT and T in the business services market that returned the company to year-over-year revenue growth in recurring enterprise services for the third quarter of 2007, a year ahead of expectations. Strategic sales wins announced in 2007 included: -- General Motors -- in a five-year network services agreement valued at nearly $1 billion. -- U.S. Department of the Treasury -- to build a next-generation enterprise network known as Treasury Network (TNet) in a deal that could earn AT and T up to $1 billion. -- Allianz of America -- for a four-year, $70 million contract for managed network services. -- Edward Jones -- for a five-year, global IP-virtual private network (VPN) services contract worth at least $54 million. -- Additional multiyear, multimillion -- dollar agreements with Sun Microsystems, US Airways, McAfee and others.

Many of the business unit's initiatives during the fourth quarter of 2007 capitalized on the ongoing shift in network traffic from voice to data -- more important, to IP-based data -- as customers continue to migrate from legacy packet networks to MPLS-based VPNs. Indeed, the positive recurring revenue results for AT and T GBS were driven by strength in enterprise IP data revenues, including a 20.9 percent year-over- year increase in the fourth quarter, which includes areas such as VPNs, managed Internet services and hosting.

Mr. Spears added, ''As this mix in traffic keeps shifting toward data in the coming years, we expect our revenue growth to continue to expand because of improving supply and demand characteristics. Our 40,000 employees and their expertise, combined with our global IP backbone network, industry-leading services and extensive, wholly owned wireless assets, have been key to our success in delivering solutions to our customers while differentiating us from other industry players.''

In 2008, AT and T GBS has already announced: -- An agreement with SAP America Inc. under which AT and T is named a Preferred SAP(R) Hosting Provider, serving as a primary SAP independent hosting services provider for business customers with headquarters in North America. -- A $20 million task order award from the U.S. Postal Service for software-engineering services. AT and T GBS, which serves enterprise and wholesale customers worldwide -- including each of the companies in the Fortune 1000 -- provides a premier portfolio of voice, data, video and mobility networking solutions. The company operates one of the world's most advanced and powerful global backbone networks, carrying more than 13.4 petabytes of data traffic on an average business day with up to 99.999 percent reliability. AT and T provides business services to 137 countries by using MPLS technology, which rides an IP backbone network reaching 97 percent of the world's economy. AT and T continues to be one of the world's largest providers of IP-based communications services for businesses, with an extensive portfolio of VPN, Voice over IP (VoIP) and other offerings backed by outstanding customer care and security features.

AT and T Inc. is one of the world's largest telecommunications holding companies and is the largest in the United States. Operating globally under the AT and T brand, AT and T companies are recognized as the leading worldwide providers of IP-based communications services to business and as leading U.S. providers of high speed Internet, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services. AT and T Inc. holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which is the No. 1 U.S. wireless services provider with 55.8 million wireless customers.

For more information on AT and T hosting services, please visit: www.business.att.com/hosting.

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