AT&T* announced plans to invest approximately $1 billion in 2009 to continue building out its global network, while driving new services and network-based applications to businesses ranging from the largest multi-national corporations around the world to the smallest companies served within the United States.

AT&T's investment is focused on the network infrastructure, services and support for companies requiring "anytime, anywhere" access to the systems, suppliers, customers and employees needed to successfully run their businesses. Spurred by continued demand for business applications made possible by the proliferation of high speed communication networks and mobile devices worldwide, the '09 program includes:

1. Applications — Delivery and support of network-based, on-demand applications — such as managed hosting, content delivery and management and telepresence.

2. Mobility Offers and Applications — Rapid roll-out of mobility solutions and applications to businesses of all sizes.

3. IBM — The continued integration of IBM's global network operations under the two companies' expanded agreement.

4. Global Network — The continued build out of AT&T's global network to deliver services and applications to the markets and geographies where multinational companies today are doing business and/or housing their operations.


"With today's announcement, AT&T is making good on its commitment to provide companies with the network-driven capabilities and applications they need to successfully compete in a difficult economic environment," said Ron Spears, President and CEO of AT&T Business Solutions.
"Regardless of size, the companies that seize the power of IP technology and services to transform their businesses, are the companies that will be best-positioned to lead the global recovery," he added.

Ron Spears, president and CEO, AT&T Business Solutions

AT&T is capitalizing on the ongoing shift in network traffic from voice to data and video — and more importantly to IP-based data and video — as customers migrate from legacy data networks to MPLS-based Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and managed applications.

Including this year's planned investment, AT&T will have invested more than $3 billion since 2006 in business-focused network, systems and applications to provide a globally consistent set of robust and secure services to the more than 3 million companies it serves.


The 2009 investment plan detail:

Network-Based Services and Applications:

• Enhancements and additions to AT&T's virtual private network portfolio, wide area network (WAN), telepresence, unified communications, hosting, applications performance, and digital media solutions, all of which helped to drive double-digit IP data growth as reported in AT&T's recent fourth quarter earnings.

• AT&T Telepresence service availability in China in collaboration with local service providers, to extend AT&T's ability to connect different companies using the service.

• Managed IP telephony & local area network (LAN) services in China, India, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Mexico.

• In the hosting and utility computing space, AT&T is:

o Increasing data center hosting capacity in Atlanta, Annapolis and the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area in the United States, as well as in Hong Kong, Tokyo and the United Kingdom globally. Today, AT&T manages data centers with more than 2.6 million square feet of secure hosting capacity in 10 countries.

o Scaling the AT&T Synaptic HostingSM platform in our recently announced super IDCs in Singapore, Amsterdam and three sites within the United States.

o Increasing the level of automation for delivering AT&T Synaptic Hosting services as we continue to drive down implementation cycle times for our customers.

o Expanding application services in the super IDCs by enabling more on-net managed applications, such as Oracle and SAP.

o Supporting more virtualized customer applications by expanding managed hosting services onto the client premises.

• Extending the AT&T Intelligent Content Distribution Service reach into Mexico, and enhancing service in high growth areas such as Brazil, India and China. Plans also call for expansion of capacity in existing service countries and jurisdictions in Europe, Japan, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. This expansion will cover services such as Flash, Windows Media Format, Move Networks and Silverlight that support large file downloads and video formats. AT&T is also expanding its SSL security capabilities.


Mobility Services and Applications:

• Accelerated deployment of mobile conferencing solutions, portal capabilities and business mobility applications for companies of all sizes in vertical industries like finance, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, education and government. AT&T is continuing its investment in platforms to support mobility application deployment including:

o Location based services — field service automation and fleet management applications for enterprise customers, leveraging advanced location technologies, such as GPS and enhanced Cell-ID, backed up by privacy management, charging and deployment management platform.

o AT&T Mobile Enterprise Applications platform for enterprises to efficiently and securely develop, deploy and support enterprise applications. This will build on AT&T's alliance with Antenna Software, and expand by adding business workflows that mobilize key enterprise processes.

o Enterprise On Demand (EOD) — our service delivery platform for customers to flexibly self manage large wireless data deployments of specialized vertical devices. The EOD platform is widely used for machine-to-machine deployments. Example enhancements include expansion of Web Services Interfaces for continued automation.

o External Access Gateway — a platform for third parties to use the AT&T network for network transactions such as network location based services queries.

• Global management of multiple mobile operator contracts to support the wireless needs of multinational companies (i.e. order processing, invoicing).

• Device protection and control and other security capabilities to ensure that companies can safely access applications and work tasks anytime, from any enabled device.

• Fixed-mobile convergence capabilities, building on AT&T's Mobile Extension service announced earlier this year.


AT&T's business mobility services and applications will continue to be powered by the broadest wireless global coverage of any U.S. provider. AT&T has voice roaming available in more than 210 countries; access to e-mail, the Web and other data applications in more than 160 countries; and access to mobile broadband 3G networks in more than 65 countries. This is complemented by AT&T's expanding global WiFi footprint — now totalling more than 88,000 hotspots worldwide.


IBM Network Integration:

Continued integration of IBM's global network operations acquired through the 2007 expanded agreement with AT&T.
AT&T and IBM have teamed together to deliver networking and computing technology and services to multinational companies.
Through its agreement with IBM, AT&T last year added on-the-ground support and networking expertise in 48 countries worldwide, and closed more than a dozen new contracts.


Continued Global Network Expansion:

• Deploying new subsea fiber optic cable capacity to Alaska, Australia, Asia Pac, India, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, and on trans-Atlantic routes to Europe. Today, AT&T has ownership interests in 83 subsea cable systems, covering 488,000 route miles. In total AT&T's network has over 888,000 route miles of fiber.

• VPN services will be extended in an additional 18 countries, giving VPN access in a total of 149 countries worldwide.

• Extending access options to additional countries in every global market so that by the end of the year:

o VPN Ethernet access will be available in 38 countries increased from 34 today.

o VPN DSL access will be available in 44 countries increased from 38 today.

o VPLS access will be available in 31 countries increased from 15 today. AT&T's OPT-E-WANSM Ethernet Virtual Private LAN is the only certified, fully unified global carrier Ethernet service based on a seamless MPLS/VPLS infrastructure available with coverage in the US and worldwide.

• IPv6 deployment — to meet the global requirements of governments and companies, AT&T is deploying a multi-year plan to deliver a full complement of IPv6 networking services that will also preserve customers' existing IPv4 investment.

• Deploying new network capabilities:

o AT&T Wavelength Private Line, a versatile, long-haul, monitored and managed service that can support multiple protocols that include gigabit Ethernet and 10 gigabit Ethernet LAN and WAN configurations.

o Enhanced AT&T Ultravailable Network Services so that businesses can take advantage of network monitoring and management tool sets, expert support and visibility through AT&T BusinessDirect®.

o AT&T plans to continue to grow global backbone capacity by 1) introducing new and faster 10 Gb edge equipment, 2) increasing backbone bandwidth and 3) adding more Cisco CRS1 routers on key routes.

o Expanding network- and premises-based firewall capabilities, as well as the AT&T Internet Protect® suite of capabilities including My Internet Protect, Private Intranet Protect, and DDoS Defense to the Asia-Pacific region.


In its most recent report**, the market research firm Ovum concluded that AT&T has the most complete footprint for enterprise managed services contracts among the top five global service providers, and could be the fastest growing global service provider in 2009.

Dallas, Texas, February 23, 2009

* AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

** Ovum, Enterprise Strategy Review: AT&T completes the deal, David Molony, Mike Sapien, Jan. 2009



Cautionary Language Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Information set forth in this news release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially.
A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
AT&T disclaims any obligation to update or revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.



About AT&T


AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world.
Among their offerings are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services, the nation's fastest 3G network and the best wireless coverage worldwide, and the nation's leading high speed Internet access and voice services.
In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment.
As part of their three-screen integration strategy, AT&T operating companies are expanding their TV entertainment offerings.
In 2008, AT&T again ranked No. 1 in the telecommunications industry on FORTUNE® magazine's lists of the World's Most Admired Companies and America's Most Admired Companies.
Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at

http://www.att.com  


Key Facts


We are the largest communications holding company in the world by revenue. Operating globally under the AT&T brand, we are:

• Proud to offer one of the world's most advanced and powerful global backbone networks, carrying 17.6 petabytes of data traffic on an average business day to nearly every continent and country, with up to 99.999 percent reliability.

• The nation's fastest 3G network serving 78.2 million customers and enabling them to travel and communicate seamlessly with the best worldwide wireless coverage — offering the most phones that work in the most countries. Offering voice coverage in more than 215 countries, data roaming in more than 170 and 3G in more than 80 countries.

• The U.S. wireless carrier for the new iPhone 3GS, which launched in June 2007 and revolutionized the industry.

• The only U.S. national service provider to offer a 100 percent IP-based television service with U-verse TV. AT&T Advanced TV offers you a TV choice that's better than cable through AT&T U-verse TV and AT&T | DIRECTV.

• The nation's largest provider of broadband — 16.7 million high speed Internet subscribers (as of 1Q09).

• The nation's largest Wi-Fi provider, now offering customers access at more than 90,000 hot spots spanning countries around the world (including company-owned and third-party roaming locations) — with the addition of approximately 7,000 Starbucks locations.

• One of the world's largest providers of IP-based communications services for businesses, with an extensive portfolio of Virtual Private Network (VPN), Voice over IP (VoIP) and other offerings — all backed by innovative security and customer support capabilities.

• The nation's largest directory publisher, delivering print directories to 173 million.

• A world leader in the transport and termination of wholesale traffic — widely recognized for our industry-leading wholesale services portfolio.

• The parent of YELLOWPAGES.COM, a leading Internet Yellow Pages network that, when combined with AT&T Real Yellow Pages, receives approximately 5 billion consumer searches a year.

• The leading U.S. provider of local and long distance voice services.


http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=26554  

http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=5711  



Ronald E. Spears

President and Chief Executive Officer,
AT&T Business Solutions


Ron Spears, president and CEO-AT&T Business Solutions, is responsible for all business products and services, including business marketing, sales, customer care and operations for wireless and wired. He was appointed to his current position in October 2008.

Previously he served as group president-Global Business Services, where he was responsible for leading the company's sales, marketing and customer care operations for Enterprise and Wholesale customers worldwide. He was appointed to this position in April 2007.

Since May 2006, Mr. Spears has served as executive vice president-Business Sales, where he was responsible for developing and executing AT&T's retail sales strategy across multiple segment organizations: Signature Client Group, Enterprise, Select, Global Services and Government Solutions.

Prior to that, he served as vice president-Signature Client Group, where he was responsible for AT&T's Signature Client Group sales team, which serves AT&T's largest multinational corporations.

Before joining AT&T in March 2002, Mr. Spears was chairman of Vaultus, Inc., which provides wireless mobility solutions for enterprise customers. He also served as president and chief executive officer of CMGI Solutions, an enterprise-focused Internet solutions provider, and as president and chief operating officer of e.Spire Communications, an integrated communications provider.

Mr. Spears has served as corporate vice president at Citizens Utilities, where he managed the company's independent telephone company operations in 13 states.
A pioneer in the competitive long distance industry, Mr. Spears managed MCI's Midwest division, where he helped create a national account sales effort that led to MCI's first sales to major corporate customers. He began his telecommunications career as a manager with AT&T Long Lines in 1978 after eight years as an officer in the U.S. Army.

Mr. Spears is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and holds a master's degree in public service from Western Kentucky University.

http://www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=9815