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CEO Steve Ciarciello Discusses AT&T Merger and the New Face of Telecom
 Most
of you remember the momentous breakup of MA Bell in 1984 into seven smaller
regional Baby Bells and a long-distance and equipment company named AT&T.
Shortly after came the onslaught of new, “cheaper” telecom providers such as
Cavalier, XO Communications, and ATX Communications. In 2005, SBC, one of the
original Baby Bells, bought AT&T for $16 billion, retaining the AT&T name and
creating the largest telecom company in the world. Now that new entity is
buying another former Baby Bell, BellSouth, in a deal valued at $67 billion.
The new combined company would
be the country’s largest supplier of broadband Internet access, surpassing the
current leader, cable giant Comcast Corp., by more than 1 million lines. Only
two of the original Baby Bells remain, Verizon (formerly BellAtlantic, which
merged with Nynex and GTE) and Qwest (which absorbed US West).
DecisionMaker
caught up with CompuData CEO
Steve
Ciarciello to find
out what the AT&T BellSouth merger means for the direction of telecom and what
you can expect from the new AT&T.
DM:
Steve, how will AT&T’s recent
merger announcement with BellSouth affect the market?
SC:
Business customers in the southeast and the rest of the country stand to benefit
from the ongoing expertise and innovation of AT&T Labs, as well as the
combination of AT&T’s state-of-the-art national and international networks.
Already the market leader, the
new combined company will be even better positioned to innovate and embrace the
market shift to IP-based technologies. Smaller local carriers like ATX,
XO, Cavalier, and Paetec, which are already struggling to maintain service
levels, don’t have the resources to evolve with market demands and will continue
to fade away.
DM: What
are some of these fundamental market demands?
SC: First
and foremost, businesses demand ever-increasing reliability and speed. As the
market leader, AT&T continues to have an excellent reputation in these areas.
But recently businesses have started demanding increased flexibility as well.
They are shifting to a more integrated telecommunications environment based on
IP services. For instance, Voice over
IP, or VoIP, allows voice packets to flow over the same lines as your data,
giving increased flexibility and cost savings to businesses. Mobile,
branch or remote employees can be physically anywhere, yet to any caller they
appear to be “at their desk.” This kind of flexibility
is key to businesses trying to do more with less, but never at the expense of
reliability and speed. No one will tolerate any delays or service interruptions
in voice traffic. So another new market demand is prioritizing traffic. With
AT&T, you can manage each application’s Class of Service, assigning priorities.
For instance, voice as the most important would be a Class 1 application and
would never have any delays in packet transmission or receipt. Next might be
video conferencing or your ERP application. Then standard office applications,
email, internet connectivity, and finally downloads.
DM:
With so much reliance on the
network, how can I be sure I’ll have service?
SC:
Business continuity is vital to
all businesses. I recommend AT&T Managed Internet Service. With this service
you get a dedicated link into AT&T's private backbone so there is no single core
point of failure. Additionally, AT&T proactively monitors your Internet access
against failures around the clock and provides enhanced security features to
help protect your valuable network resources.
DM:
Does this mean that businesses
have to throw out all their existing technology?
SC:
Of course not, the best course
for companies is to evolve their network. The goal is to protect the
infrastructure that you have, but position your company to take advantage of
newer technology.
DM:
Can clients get all these AT&T
services through CompuData?
SC:
Absolutely. CompuData is one of
only a few AT&T Authorized Alliance Partners. At no charge, we will exam your
current local, long distance and Internet bills and help you determine which
services are best for you.
DM:
What if I already have a telecom
contract another provider?
SC:
You would be surprised at how many companies never examine their telecom bills
and consistently over pay for services.
Often after we
examine a company’s existing services, the savings that CompuData finds are so
great that it is actually worth paying the penalty to break the old contract and
move to a newer or aggregated technology.
DM: This
newer, larger AT&T offers many unique services, but if
I ever have a problem with my bills or my service, how long do I have to stay on
hold with this new gigantic AT&T before it gets resolved?
SC:
As an AT&T Alliance Partner, CompuData is your 1st line of support
with any telecom issues. You never have to stay on hold with the phone
company. You call CompuData and we take care of everything.
DM:
Steve, thank you for taking time
to give us your perspective of some of the new telecommunications initiatives
that AT&T and CompuData are involved with.
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For more information on AT&T services, click here
or call 800-223-3282. |
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