AT&T backs Cisco Telepresence

Cisco has picked up a big ally in its push to fill the network with bandwidth-hungry video.

As Brad Reed reports, AT&T will offer a managed videoconferencing service based on Cisco TelePresence to businesses in 23 countries by year-end. The service will provide intercompany videoconferencing, allowing companies to connect to their customers, suppliers and partners.

Cisco says AT&T is the first carriers to offer an intercompany TelePresence service. Cisco began demonstrating the intercompnay capability last year.

AT&T is incorporating TelePresence with its own IP-network and VPN capabilities to create a teleconferencing service that will target such industries as healthcare, high-tech, retail and government.

TelePresence, which debuted in October 2006, includes a 65-inch plasma display panel, as well as surround-sound audio, that delivers life-size, high-definition (1080-pixel) videoconferences between businesses. AT&T says customers can choose from the TelePresence 3000 package, which includes three display panels and costs $249,000; and the TelePresence 1000, which has one display panel and costs $59,000.

Ronald Spears, AT&T group president of gloabl business services, says the carrier currently has 11 Cisco TelePresence sites set up in AT&T offices throughout the U.S., with plans to expand globally in the coming year.