AT&T’s IP telephony business services are threatening to competitors because the provider supports a mix of network-hosted, premise-based and managed services, backed by an extensive U.S. and international reach and a brand with global recognition. AT&T’s Business VoIP portfolio encompasses AT&T Voice DNA hosted VoIP service as well as AT&T IP Flexible Reach and AT&T IP Toll Free managed services; AT&T’s Business In A Box is a managed turnkey solution designed for small businesses and branch offices; and AT&T IP Telephony/LAN Management is a set of managed services that include AT&T LAN Service, IP Telephony Service and Wireless LAN Service. AT&T’s premise-based solutions support legacy key systems and TDM and IP PBX customer premises equipment, and the carrier has strategic agreements with Avaya, Cisco and Nortel that combine AT&T’s network capabilities with these products to offer customers a one-stop shop for services ranging from network design through to implementation. AT&T plans to introduce Hosted Integrated Contact Services (ICS) in late 2009; a full-featured hosted contact center offer that will include hosted IP Interactive Voice Response (IVR). AT&T's IP telephony services interoperate with its IP VPN services, Managed Internet Service (MIS) and MPLS Private Network Transport (MPLS PNT). AT&T’s overall strategy is that no matter how the customer wants to migrate to IP telephony, AT&T has a solution that will meet their needs.

AT&T is the nation's largest carrier, and many customers that are considering the migration to VoIP will already be AT&T voice and data service customers. AT&T will be selling customers new technologies, but in doing so will sometimes be moving existing TDM customers to IP rather than growing its customer base and adding new revenue. Though AT&T sells its VoIP services to businesses of all sizes, the carrier has a reputation for providing premium services that target enterprise-class customers, and the carrier's VoIP services may not scale down to meet the lower budgets of smaller businesses. AT&T does offer services such as Business in a Box and Voice DNA that are suitable for smaller locations, but the carrier does not generally make these services available through reseller channels, customers must procure services from AT&T directly. Many SMBs rely on value-added resellers for IT management, including the procurement of services, and these customers may feel intimidated at the thought of sourcing VoIP services themselves and/or be concerned that they will not receive the same level of post-sales attention from AT&T that they receive from their local VAR.

• AT&T has certified the following devices as compatible with network-based Voice DNA: Cisco 7940G and 7960G IP phones, Cisco's VG 224 and ATA 186 Integrated Access Devices, Citel P-Phone Adapter, Polycom 301, 601, 650, and IP 4000 Conference Phone; LG/Nortel LIP-6812 and LIP-6830 and CounterPath Solutions’ eyebeam softphone.

• AT&T has certified interoperability with three major IP PBX vendors for its IP Flexible Reach service: Avaya, Cisco and Nortel. AT&T can operate with most key systems and legacy TDM PBXs. Once fully integrated, customers do not need a premises gateway; voice traffic traverses an IP access link into the AT&T network cloud, where AT&T hands the call off through a local gateway to its local and long-distance networks, or internationally for off-net call completion.

• AT&T IP Toll-Free has been certified with the dominant players in the contact center market including Avaya Communications Manager with ACD and IVR, Cisco’s UCC with Call Manager, IP IVR, and CVP and Genesys SIP server.

• AT&T’s EVPN, MIS/MPLS PNT, IP-enabled Frame Relay and IP-enabled ATM services feature a real-time class of service for delivery of VoIP services. AT&T provides voice over MIS and MPLS PNT customers with a Cisco router that contains an internal VoIP module to connect to the customers’ TDM PBX.

• AT&T will deploy a fully configured Quintum Technologies' Tenor VoIP switch along with an AT&T managed router for key system implementations. The gateway will connect to any brand of analog key system.

• AT&T Voice DNA supports G.711 and G.729 codecs for voice and fax depending on the call type and device. IP Toll Free supports G.711, G.726, G.729a and G.729b codecs for voice and fax.

• AT&T launched its network-based VoIP service, Voice DNA, in mid-2005, and as of mid-2008, the service was available in 2,366 rate centers reaching 173 markets in 36 states where the carrier has local access facilities. AT&T Voice DNA is only available in markets where AT&T can also provide E911 services. AT&T's virtual telephone number (VTN) capability provides presence through 11,518 Rate Centers located in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

• AT&T’s Voice DNA Remote Worker/Remote Site Option is designed for the small Office/home office (SOHO) market within AT&T’s business VoIP footprint. Remote workers can use AT&T Voice DNA in conjunction with DSL or cable modem service, supplied by AT&T or another provider. AT&T requires Voice DNA Remote Worker customers to use business grade DSL service. Cable modem service can be residential or business grade, but the customer must subscribe to a minimum 128 kbps upstream bandwidth.

• In the U.S., AT&T offers IP Flexible Reach within its business VoIP local footprint, which was available in approximately 173 U.S. markets in 36 states and the District of Columbia as of February 2008. AT&T has 2,366 Native Telephone Number (TN) Rate Centers and 9152 Virtual TN (VTN) rate centers. AT&T has presence in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. with VTN support.

• AT&T IP Toll-Free service is available in 49 states and can also receive calls from Alaska and Canada. IP Toll-Free can support International call termination when used with a customer’s WAN, and can support International origination and termination when used with AT&T’s PSTN-based Global Inbound Service.

• AT&T IP Telephony/LAN Management is available to customers of the following AT&T WAN Services: Managed Internet Service Plus (MIS+/VoMIS) for U.S. domestic service, Enhanced Virtual Private Network Service (EVPN/VoEVPN) for U.S. domestic and international service, and Managed Router Service (MRS/VoMRS) for U.S. domestic service. AT&T IP Telephony/LAN Management customers must subscribe to an appropriate AT&T Wide Area Network (WAN) Service under a separate contract.

• AT&T Business VoIP services are generally not available to customers through the carrier’s reseller channels except on an individual case basis.

• Voice DNA service offers Standard, Enhanced and Premium feature packages and optional features of Call Distribution Module, Attendant Console, Audio Conferencing for up to ten users, Auto Attendant, Virtual Voicemail and Microsoft Outlook integration are included in the Premium package. Customers can mix and match plan features for each location. Customers with a premise-based solution of IP Flexible Reach and IP VPN services can purchase Voice DNA to supplement their PBX or key system functionality with Voice DNA’s VoIP features.

• AT&T Voice DNA allows administrators to generate VoIP call reports and handle moves/adds/changes/disconnects via the AT&T BusinessDirect customer portal. Administrators can allow employees access to a Personal Web Site, where they can view their own AT&T Voice DNA call logs and configure call control features. The AT&T Voice DNA Personal Web site enables teleworkers and roaming employees to access voice mail via any Internet connection. Using a softphone, they can use their business telephone service remotely through a dedicated Internet access or broadband connection.

• AT&T Business in a Box is a managed turnkey voice and data solution provided to small and medium businesses (SMBs) and branch offices via a single network connection and device. Business in a Box offers VoIP functionality through Voice DNA or IP Flexible Reach, IP VPN access through AT&T MIS+ and includes two outbound analog ports for use in the event of a power failure, along with firewall protection, LAN connectivity via Power over Ethernet and WiFi data access capabilities.

• AT&T IP Toll-Free provides customers with a seamless migration path to IP-based infrastructure by fully interworking with AT&T’s existing Toll-Free Advanced Features. Customers can manage both TDM and IP endpoints through AT&T’s Route-It! service and receive reports and billing for both IP and TDM toll free calls through the AT&T BusinessDirect customer portal. IP Transfer Connect is a SIP-based routing feature that allows AT&T IP Toll-Free inbound calls to be transferred to another AT&T IP Toll-Free or nodal Toll-Free site in the U.S using out-of-band SIP signaling and speed dial codes. Transfers can be pre-answer or post-answer and can include data forwarding.

• IP Flexible Reach is a SIP trunking service that supports IP and TDM PBXs as well as key systems. IP Flexible Reach terminates at the customer’s premises onto an AT&T managed router and provides local services (DID/DOD, toll free termination, local number portability, directory assistance, operator services directory listing, 911/E911 at registered locations, N11/411, caller ID with name and blocking options), dynamic bandwidth sharing, voice prioritization, voice quality SLAs and local and long distance calling plans. IP Flexible Reach also supports Virtual Telephone Numbers.

• The AT&T Business VoIP Site Availability SLA performance objective specifies that no problem stemming from AT&T Network, CPE or AT&T-provided dedicated access will prevent customers from completing all VoIP telephone calls for a period that lasts two consecutive hours or more. If AT&T does not meet this performance objective, customers may qualify for a one-day credit for the affected AT&T business VoIP site. AT&T caps credits at five credits in any calendar month for a particular business VoIP site, and 30 credits in a calendar year for a particular business VoIP site. The site availability SLA does not apply to remote sites.

• AT&T generally relies on the ITU R-Factor, an objective measurement of packet loss, latency, and jitter, for its VoIP call quality SLA guarantees. AT&T guarantees a minimum R-Factor of 70 (equivalent to about 3.6 Mean Opinion Score) for 95% of a business customer's U.S. VoIP calls as measured on an individual call basis, excluding calls that are 10 seconds or less in duration.

• Credits for failure to meet its R-Factor objective start at 5% of its monthly VoIP charges, multiplied by the number of successive months the goal is not met (up to five consecutive months, for a 25% credit on VoIP charges). Customers with premises-based services must have the PBX connected directly to the AT&T VoIP interface and an access speed of at least 128 kbps to qualify for the SLA.

• AT&T's VoIP availability, time to repair, latency, packet loss and jitter guarantees depend on the underlying services and networks delivering VoIP to the customer. In the U.S., AT&T MIS and MPLS PNT offer 100% network availability with credits kicking in one minute after an outage, an objective of 37 ms average round-trip latency network-wide, 99.95% data delivery and an objective of less than 1 ms average jitter. SLA objectives vary internationally by region and between regions. The metrics are derived from network-wide averages, measured on a PoP-to-PoP basis. AT&T additionally offers unspecified end-to-end service objectives, available as part of the standard SLA.

• IP Telephony/LAN Management offers a 99.9% service availability SLA and an on-time provisioning SLA of 95%. Service Level Objectives (SLO) include a time to repair (TTR) of four hours for remote restores, eight hours for restores that require a dispatch, and Time to Notify of 30 minutes for problems defined by AT&T as Severity 1 and one hour for problems defined by AT&T as Severity 2.

• AT&T offers a VoIP Watchdog tool, which continuously manages and monitors network paths between customer sites for voice quality; each path is probed continuously to provide early notification of any network changes that may affect VoIP call quality. Based on R-factor thresholds, auto-tickets are created for possible network reroutes around congestion spots.

• AT&T Business VoIP service price components include a non-recurring set up fee, calling plans based on the number of concurrent calls selected by the customer for each site, feature packages and the underlying transport service: AT&T Managed Internet Service (MIS) or AT&T MPLS Private Network Transport (MPLS PNT). AT&T requires Business VoIP customers to purchase the Managed Router option with IP VPN services.

• AT&T Voice DNA customers must select the Standard, Enhanced or Premium Feature Package. The plans start at $49/user/month. Premium Package customers can also add audio conferencing, attendant console, call distribution module and auto attendant. The feature packages include the enhanced telephony features, plus unlimited on-net, local and U.S. long-distance calling.

• IP Flexible Reach has three calling plans. All plans come with unlimited outbound on-net calling; the IP PBX vendor, model and software versions must be the same between locations for calls to be designated as “on-net”. Calling Plan A offers metered long distance and international service. Calling Plan B offers unlimited local calling and metered long distance and international service. Calling Plan C offers unlimited local, 300 minutes of long distance (per each Concurrent Call purchased) for one flat monthly rate and metered charges for long distance calls over the 300 minute limit and for all international calls.

• AT&T IP Toll-Free customers can order a calling plan with U.S. toll-free interstate inbound calls priced at a single per minute rate and toll-free intrastate calls priced at state-specific rates (Calling Plan D). Calling Plan D can only be ordered in conjunction with Calling Plan A. AT&T also provides usage-based pricing on its pre-answer transfer service (“IP Redirect”), but provides an “all you can eat” approach for post-answer transfers (“IP Courtesy Transfer”), and data forwarding (“IP InfoPack”) which are each flat rate monthly recurring charges based on maximum concurrent calls provisioned.