AT&T First Service Provider in North America to Receive Cisco Powered Network Quality of Service Certification for Managed Metropolitan Ethernet Service
Prestigious Certification for AT&T OPT-E-MAN® Service
SAN ANTONIO, Texas, and SAN JOSE, Calif., July 11 // -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Cisco Systems® (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced that AT&T has earned the valued Cisco Powered Network Quality of Service (QoS) Certification for its AT&T OPT-E-MAN® managed metropolitan optical transport service. AT&T is the first North American-based service provider to receive the designation recognizing Metro Ethernet solutions with exceptional service quality and low latency.
The Cisco Powered Network QoS Certification for metropolitan Ethernet services, created in September 2005, verifies that AT&T is committed to delivering to customers the highest levels of recommended service quality in compliance with the criteria and specifications defined by Cisco. The certification process requires AT&T to undergo an annual third-party, on-site assessment to validate that best practices are followed for delivering recommended levels of network performance and customer support for different types of video, voice and data services.
AT&T OPT-E-MAN is a fully managed, switched Ethernet network service that provides customers with a highly efficient solution for communicating across multiple business locations within a metropolitan area. It can be configured in a variety of ways, including point to point, point to multipoint and multipoint to multipoint, with bandwidth ranging from 5 Mbps up to 1 Gbps.
OPT-E-MAN is currently available in 19 metropolitan areas: San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, St. Louis, Detroit, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Green Bay, Appleton, Madison, Eau Claire and all metros in Connecticut.
"This certification demonstrates AT&T's continued commitment to its customers and to innovation in the market," said Jeff Spagnola, vice president of service provider marketing at Cisco. "The new AT&T is taking an industry- leading role in building a cost-effective, flexible and scalable IP next- generation network, with security, to drive down costs and enable new service offerings. We are pleased to continue to work with AT&T in the development of its network."
AT&T OPT-E-MAN is delivered over Cisco 7600 series routers installed at AT&T's central offices for high-density Gigabit Ethernet (GE) aggregation and Cisco Catalyst 3550 Series Switches deployed at the network edge. AT&T OPT-E- MAN is supported by Cisco High Touch Technical Support to maintain high availability of the network infrastructure and help with service assurance.
"The QoS certification by Cisco is an important acknowledgement for AT&T," said Sanford Brown, AT&T vice president. "It is important in our industry that high standards and exemplary service be quantified and recognized. We are proud to be the first North American-based company to achieve this certification through our AT&T OPT-E-MAN Ethernet service. Having the Cisco Powered Network Quality of Service designation for this solution demonstrates our commitment to helping customers maximize the performance of advanced applications."
About 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 55.8 million wireless customers. Additional information about AT&T Inc. and AT&T products and services is available at www.att.com/ .
Subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. provide products and services under the AT&T brand.
About Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at www.cisco.com/ . For ongoing news, please go to newsroom.cisco.com/ .
For more information and detailed disclaimer information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at www.sbc.com/newsroom .
Source: AT&T Inc.
CONTACT: Michael Lordi of AT&T, +1-212-453-2276, mlordi@attnews.com , or Kevin Petschow of Cisco, +1-408-527-4743, kpetscho@cisco.com
Web site: www.att.com/
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