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AT&T Introduces Affordable, Feature-Rich High Speed Network Access Option to Small, Midsize Businesses

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 09:00 CST

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) today announced a new high speed access option for small to midsize businesses, which allows them access to advanced optical access solutions.

The new service, AT&T Ultravailable(R) Service Option 2, is available immediately to customers and is designed to provide a more affordable, feature-rich, end-to-end ring access alternative. Ultravailable Service Option 2 also is a leading option for customers who require a Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) solution, which gives customers flexible bandwidth utilization possibilities at prices that meet the needs of the small to midsize enterprise marketplace. With this service, customers can support multiple functions, such as access aggregation, network redundancy and data mirroring applications, as well as multiple services, such as Ethernet, voice and storage.

DWDM is an optical technology used to increase bandwidth over existing fiber-optic backbones. The key advantage of DWDM is that it's both protocol and bit-rate independent and, therefore, can transmit data in IP, ATM, and SONET and handle bit rates between 100 Mbps and 10 Gbps. DWDM-based networks can carry different types of traffic at different speeds over an optical channel allowing customers to better manage their bandwidth.

AT&T Ultravailable Services are managed solutions for interconnecting business sites in metropolitan and wide area networks. The network design and engineering provides the highest possible levels of availability, reliability and security ensuring enterprise customers of fail-safe business continuity with continuous operations and access to their information.

"As a recognized leader in the fiber-optics marketplace, AT&T is always striving to accommodate the networking needs of its business customers of all sizes," said Regina Egea, vice president of AT&T product management. "This new service will more directly address the needs of those businesses that require a cost-effective way to handle the diverse business applications they're using," she said.

The introduction of AT&T Ultravailable Service Option 2 is the latest example of the company's recent merger enabling it to deliver its sophisticated enterprise networking solutions to small and midsize businesses.

For existing AT&T ACCU-Ring(R) Network Access Service customers who require additional storage services or bandwidth, Ultravailable Service Option 2 will provide them with a cost-effective, lower-end solution capable of growing as their business needs change.

AT&T Ultravailable Service Option 2 is intended to meet the needs of clients requiring traditional ACCU-Ring-like TDM services and who may also require DWDM-based native protocols to support storage and/or other applications. It offers the same SONET and DWDM technology and connection types as Ultravailable Network Service (UNS). Ultravailable Service Option 2 is a middle-of-the-road option for smaller businesses looking to more effectively run their networks.

AT&T ACCU-Ring Network Access Service is a complete end-to-end, high-capacity local access, transport service, fully monitored by AT&T. It is a private SONET ring that gives businesses dedicated high speed access on which they can consolidate all of their traffic, including private line, switched and enhanced services, and all distance carrier traffic (voice, data and video). The self-healing, dedicated nature of SONET-ring architecture protects critical applications from being disrupted or degraded because of a loss of the signal or interruption in transmission.

AT&T Ultravailable Managed Network Service provides business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities to large businesses by using a geographically dispersed infrastructure. It is a scalable network solution that can interconnect data centers and business sites in a Metropolitan Area Network, as well as accommodate the transfer of large amounts of data at high bandwidth speeds between locations. AT&T Ultravailable Networks are designed, engineered and implemented to meet customers' unique operational needs while transparently resolving single points of failure.

For more information on AT&T Ultravailable Service Option 2, visit www.TheNewATT.com.

About the New AT&T

AT&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&T brand, AT&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 DSL Internet, local and long distance voice, and directory publishing and advertising services. AT&T Inc. holds a 60 percent ownership interest in Cingular Wireless, which is the No. 1 U.S. wireless services provider with more than 54 million wireless customers. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and AT&T products and services is available at www.TheNewATT.com.

(C) 2006 AT&T Knowledge Ventures. All rights reserved. Subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. provide products and services under the AT&T brand.

Source: Business Wire

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