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Carrier Services
AT&T Focuses On the Integrated Customer Experience
AT&T Adopts A Three-Screen Approach
by Sean Buckley
As Kieran Nolan, vice president, broadband, for AT&T, sees it, the
broadband experience for 2007 and beyond is not just about delivering a
high-speed pipe, but rather about delivering a compelling service
package tailored to the end user’s needs.
“We still see customers looking for a way to integrate, aggregate and/or
bundle their services,” said Nolan. “They are looking at what utility they
get out of products and services they buy from any carrier, so it’s not
just one product or two anymore, it’s now becoming the whole thing.”
AT&T is happy to oblige with a complete suite of services that includes:
Cingular wireless, broadband DSL, U-Verse IP video, and Home Zone
video services via its relationship with DISH Satellite Services.
That’s not to say that AT&T is not bullish on the prospects of DSL. Even
before AT&T swallows up BellSouth, the service provider has 8 million
DSL subscribers — a figure that continues to grow.
To add value to that DSL broadband base, Nolan believes there are two
steps they have to take as a provider of integrated services. The first is
to provide a DSL broadband product set that takes into account speed
and price. AT&T can offer everything from a dial-up replacement at 768
Kbps all the way up to a 6-Mbps product for the savvy end user who
would be interested in downloading movies or gaming.
Second, AT&T believes it has to provide compelling applications and
features over that link. For AT&T that includes services such as
subscription (Vongo) and per-transaction online video download services
(MovieLink), for example.
Delivering premium content will tie into AT&T’s emerging three-screen
concept. In 2007, this concept will give the customer a choice to access
content on the screen they choose: laptop/home computer, cell phone
or TV.
“We will continuously augment content that will be available on both the
broadband platform as well as our TV platform,” said Nolan. “The good
news is that the customer can get a choice: ‘I can watch TV on my PC
if I want; I can watch TV on my Homezone or VoD on Home Zone.’"
Powering AT&T’s service experience vision is its Lightspeed broadband-
access network implementation. The operator says it’s on target to
reach 15 markets with FTTN (fiber to the node) via its Lightspeed
project this year. At press time, AT&T had only reached only two
markets: San Antonio and Houston.
Despite criticism that AT&T is behind its Bell brother Verizon, which has
been aggressively touting a strong FTTH drive, AT&T is confident that
by using a combination of FTTN for Brownfield markets and FTTH in
Greenfield markets it can deliver a compelling experience for its
customers. Further, by using copper pair bonding, AT&T is confident it
can get even higher speeds outside the 3000-fiber node range.
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