[August 30, 2004]

AT&T Strikes $30M IP Tech Deal

BY JOHANNE TORRES

As part of AT&T’s aim to steer away from consumer telephone services, the company announced its latest IP technology pact, a $30 million partnership with travel technology provider, Worldspan Technologies, Inc. (news - alert- quote). The company will now become Worldspan’s lone provider for its North American operations.  

AT&T (news - alert - quote) is hooking up the Atlanta-based company with a secure, high-speed network-based IP Virtual Private Network bundle connected to an AT&T Ultravailable Network (UVN) fiber ring at the host site. The travel technology provider imparts worldwide electronic distribution of travel information, Internet products and connectivity, and e-commerce capabilities for travel agencies, travel suppliers and corporations via a global distribution system (GDS) enabling 16,000 travel agencies and other users worldwide to access travel data and booking capabilities for approximately 800 service suppliers.  

With AT&T’s UVN ring in place, major airlines and large, high-volume travel agencies, will be able to use a dedicated high-speed IP circuit that connects directly to the ring.  Smaller customers — including independent travel agencies, will have database access when they use the same dedicated IP technology or lower cost DSL Internet-based technology securely connecting to the ring.  

Under this agreement, AT&T will also back up Worldspan's entire database at its Atlanta-area Internet Data Center if emergencies were to happen as in the case of a natural disaster. Worldspan will also have access to tools online that give real-time reports on network performance and direct access to AT&T's ordering, status, inventory and trouble management systems through the secure AT&T BusinessDirect portal. 

Noted is AT&T’s effort to focus on growing their services aimed at the business sector. The company has publicly expressed its objective to expand their IP technology-based offerings by entering in the Voice over IP (VoIP) (define - news - alert - tutorial) space with their CallVantage service, and also through agreements such as this one with Worldspan.