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AT&T Serves Applebee's Franchisee with IP VPNBY JOHANNE TORRES
TMCnet VoIP Minute Watch Columnist
AT&T just added another IP VPN contract to its expanding portfolio. The telecom giant announced on Thursday it inked a three-year, $1.5 million networking contract from Thomas & King Inc., a franchisee of more than 85 Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar and Johnny Carino's restaurants in Kentucky, Ohio and Arizona.
The deal calls for AT&T to connect Thomas & King's headquarters and 85-plus restaurants through an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) with increased bandwidth and faster speeds. The use of Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology will allow the system to add VoIP functionality with priority queuing for business applications. In addition to VoIP, the network will also handle Intranet, e-mail, credit card processing and training videos applications.
"We are growing at the rate of six to eight new restaurants per year and decided it was time to revamp our network," said Mike Scanlon, president and CEO of Thomas & King Inc. "AT&T has been a trusted supplier for many years, and so we turned to them to help us manage our growth and increase productivity through practical technology solutions."
The contract will also provide the restaurant chain with always-on Internet access to real-time reports on network performance and direct connection to electronic billing and trouble management systems through the AT&T BusinessDirect portal.
AT&T began the month of September announcing a three-year data and voice networking contract with ResMAE Mortgage Corp., a wholesale mortgage lender. ResMAE and AT&T have been working together since 2003. The agreement called for AT&T to link ResMAE's nine domestic offices through an Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN).
AT&T has been scoring voice and data network deals left and right this month. Indeed, the telecom giant announced IP VPN deployment deals with Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., Inventec Corp., Air Products and Chemicals Inc., and Atrium Companies Inc.
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit:
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