AT&T and Cisco team to push telepresence

Stuart Corner
Monday, 21 April 2008 13:01

Your IT - Home IT

AT&T and Cisco have teamed up to offer the Cisco Telepresence high resolution 'virtual reality' videoconferencing technology for installation in the offices of client companies as a fully managed service.
Three-screen and one-screen site options will be available, based on Cisco TelePresence System 3000 and Cisco TelePresence System 1000 endpoints. The equipment will be owned by AT&T which will provide installation, monitoring and management of the application, network connectivity to support the system, remote help desk service and on-site equipment maintenance and repair.

According to Cisco, the network will be the first of its kind and will also be the first to provide a 'meet-me' feature that will support inter-company conferencing. It is expected to be available in the second half of 2008 in 23 countries and more in 2009.

Cisco says that it and AT&T have started early trials with key customers. "Sales teams from AT&T and Cisco will target US based multinational companies and selected companies headquartered outside of the US in their initial efforts."

The two companies say they have "joined forces to enable the growth and use of telepresence technology among businesses and organisations," and that the announcement is "the first of what is expected to be many industry-leading innovations to be introduced by AT&T and Cisco." AT&T plans to develop industry-specific applications for telepresence across a range of industries - including health care, high-tech, retail and government.

AT&T is already using the technology internally. According to Ronald E Spears, AT&T group president of Global Business Services, AT&T already has 11 Cisco TelePresence sites in AT&T offices around the US and plans to add more in overseas offices in the coming year. "We're already seeing tremendous value from the ability to bring our management team together for face to face meetings on a regular basis, even though they are scattered across the country. Not only are we saving time and expense associated with travel, but we are much more productive. When we implement the intercompany telepresence capability, we expect to quickly start using it to build closer relationships with our key customers throughout the world," he sad.

Cisco claims that more than 500 Telepresence units have been ordered by more than 100 customers since the product's introduction in October 2006 and claims that it is "the unit sales leader in this fast growing market segment."

In addition, Cisco has equipped more than 200 Cisco TelePresence rooms in its own offices in 30 countries and 95 cities and says that, with usage averaging five hours per day per room, compared to traditional video conferencing, which is typically used less than 30 minutes per day per endpoint, it believes it has gained more than $60 million in productivity improvements.