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September 20, 2005 - BEDMINSTER, N.J. – To help global business travelers stay connected to their corporate networks, AT&T today announced that the company has added more than 2,100 WiFi hot spots across China, Japan and Greece, as well as in-flight WiFi connectivity from select European and Asian airlines. The company also said today it is providing wireless cellular connectivity for remote workers in the United States.
These new capabilities are the latest enhancements to AT&T’s Enterprise Mobility Portfolio, which is designed to provide today’s workforce with flexible and secure mobile access to their corporate virtual private networks (VPNs).
“Our customers need anytime, anywhere access to their corporate networks,” said Mike Antieri, group executive for AT&T Product Management. “By offering them more ways to stay connected to their VPNs, we’re helping them increase productivity, enhance collaboration and improve efficiency across-the-board.”
Through its relationship with GoRemote Internet Communications, Inc., a leading provider of secure, managed broadband network services, AT&T customers now will be able to roam using more than 1,330 locations in the China Mobile hotspot network. The network expansion also includes access to more than 800 hotspot locations through Yahoo Broadband in Japan and an additional 40 hotspots via FORTHnet in Greece.
AT&T’s WiFi and Wired Ethernet footprint now comprises more than 13,000 hotspots in key business locations in 42 countries worldwide -- 7,629 in the United States and 6,118 in the rest of the world - and has plans for a total of more than 16,000 by the end of 2005.
AT&T also has struck an agreement with Connexion by Boeing, which will give AT&T customers access to “Hotspots in the sky,” allowing them to use their existing accounts to gain the benefits of secure, real-time Internet access in flight, while receiving a single, consolidated service billing. Connexion by Boeing provides high-speed wireless Internet, data and entertainment connectivity service for commercial airlines and their passengers, as well as for operators of private and government executive jets.
A variety of routes from a number of airlines in Europe and Asia feature the Connexion by Boeing service. The service will be available to AT&T customers in the first quarter.
AT&T also introduced today a new remote wireless cellular access service that will enable remote workers to log on to their companies’ networks via a PC cellular card that is compatible with many of the leading U.S. cellular service providers.
AT&T has integrated all of these new features and locations into its network connection manager. AT&T has enhanced the connection manager to now include the following new “intelligent connection” features:
• automatic connection capability that dynamically detects, configures, and connects to any type of wired or wireless connection available. This feature tries different connection types in a single connection sequence. For instance, broadband first, then Wi-Fi, then wireless/cellular, and, finally, dial;
• dynamic detection of all WiFi and cellular data networks that are in range. Once a wireless network is selected, the user’s network card is automatically configured with the proper connection settings;
• automatic detection of various network types, including those that are not AT&T-enabled;
• extension of the simple user login experience to other commonly used networks, such as home broadband connections, corporate wireless LANs, and mobile/cellular data networks; and
• AES encryption for IPSec VPN connections, which provides additional security to the remote connection.
For more information on all of these new services and remote access features, and for information on an upcoming web-based briefing about them visit www.business.att.com/.
About AT&T
For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications. Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.
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