Merged AT&T and SBC will focus on global presence

AT&T says that whilse its aim is to position itself as the “flagship national carrier” in its home market, simultaneously it will also look to global business to strengthen its overall market viability following the completion of its merger with SBC Communications.~ ~ The telco says it is well placed to deliver the benefits of IP communications to customers and warns that consolidation in the industry is still in its infancy.~ ~ Earlier this week AT&T criticised its rival and former partner British Telecom (BT) saying that the carrier`s “catch-up” efforts to transform its global services business are too little, too late.~ ~ Yesterday, AT&T Asia Pacific vice president, Steve Lowe, said a combined AT&T-SBC will look to its international arm as key to its future growth strategy.~ ~ Lowe`s comments chime with a speech recently given by AT&T chairman, Dave Dorman, in which he said a global IP infrastructure will help his company to build market share with US business and government customers.~ ~ “One of the factors that made AT&T attractive to SBC is our global business, which will significantly enhance the overall strength of the business and benefit customers by providing a more comprehensive range of services and capabilities,” Lowe told TelecomTV News.~ ~ He added, “One of our greatest competitive advantages is our strength in managed security services.”~ ~ Traditional telecoms revenues are on a persistent slide in the US and AT&T has invested significantly in IP systems. Nonetheless, Steve Lowe believes there is still some life in the old market.~ ~ “Traditional voice telephony in the US has become a commodity and we believe there will be a continual shift toward IP based services, including voice. But we don`t think traditional voice service will disappear altogether for many more years yet,” he said.~ ~ According to his boss, David Dorman, “The combined AT&T-SBC will provide improved and innovative voice, data and video services for enterprises and greater choice in the residential marketplace, which is seeing growing competition across communications platforms.”~ ~ Dorman also believes that “fundamental restructuring of the telecom industry is long overdue” and that with more consolidation and network innovation on the horizon, customers will soon emerge as the “primary beneficiaries.”~ ~ Meanwhile, according to Steve Lowe, “Many industry analysts and observers have said that the AT&T-SBC merger represents the start of the long-awaited industry consolidation. It has been widely accepted that there have been too many competitors and excess capacity for several years, creating severe pricing pressure and unsustainable business models. Increasing convergence of voice, data, video and other services over IP will probably help to drive further consolidation.”~ ~ AT&T’s merger with SBC is still more than 12 months from completion and a long list of regulators and federal officials have yet to give their blessings to the union.