AT&T announced last week that it will be offering global conferencing through Skype for Business in the coming months. The announcement was made in a blog post by Abhi Ingle, SVP of Big Data & Advanced Business Solutions.
The collaboration makes AT&T one of the first major U.S. service providers to integrate audio conferencing into a Skype for Business environment, enabling conferencing services to more than 140 countries. AT&T will also continue to provide global audio conferencing to its customers using Microsoft Lync.
AT&T will offers its service with several options, including for customers that
- have purchased Skype for Business directly from Microsoft or third parties,
- choose to use AT&T to host and manage Skype for Business environments,
- host and manage Skype for Business in their own data centers, and / or
- use Office 365 by add the service as part of AT&T Mobile Office Suite.
The service will allow businesses to:
- create virtual meetings with up to 1,000 participants;
- use dial-in, dial-out and VoIP options in one conference;
- connect external partners, international associates, mobile workers and other teams;
- transition from an instant messaging chat or email thread to an international call; and
- use Skype for Business’s instant messaging, screen sharing and email integration tools.
Ingle noted that AT&T will “continue to team with Microsoft on a number of unified communications solutions. AT&T Global Conferencing with Skype for Business, currently known to AT&T hosted services customers as Microsoft Lync, will be available later this quarter. AT&T Global Conferencing is now available on our AT&T hosted version of Microsoft Lync.”
