AT&T Commits $1B to Business Markets

It must be nice to parcel out your capex budget in the billions.  Today AT&T (NYSE:T, news, filings) said it will spend some $1B in 2010 on increasing its network capabilities and services for the enterprise market.  That means everything from the SME to the multinational corporations.  It’s not a new expenditure; what AT&T is doing is simply detailing what it intends to do with this slice of its previously projected capex budget.  And what a list it is!

There’s something for everyone:  cloud services, unified communications, telepresence, mobility solutions, IPv6, Ethernet over copper, undersea capacity expansions, machine-to-machine, femtocells, global network expansions, utility computing, new and expanded data centers, enhanced backoffice systems, vertical markets, …  and much more.  It’s far easier to look at what is *not* on the list, actually.

Looking for buzzwords that didn’t make the cut for top billing in AT&T’s capex bazaar, one finds a few interesting words getting the short end of the stick.  One is the word ‘fiber’, which doesn’t appear once in the press release in any context – even less than copper’s one reference.  Yes, I’m sure fiber underlies many parts of their plan (their whole backbone in fact), but the point is that they are focusing their spending much more on higher level services.

Another missing buzzword is last year’s media darling, the content delivery network, or CDN.  AT&T of course built its own CDN infrastructure, and it’s still out there.  However we haven’t been hearing terribly much from it, and apparently we still won’t be.

And finally, the word ‘voice’ appears only in the context of what is being shifted away from and VoIP doesn’t appear at all.  That’s understandable given the big shift in emphasis to video of course.  However, there may still be some interesting voip news coming on the consumer side, as Andy Abramson has reported that they may be preparing to wake CallVantage from the dead.  Or at least exhume it, extract some DNA, clone it, and use it as a way to sell femtocells.

If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!

Categories: Financials · ILECs, PTTs