AT&T has announced that the company had conducted industry's first multipoint, intercompany Cisco TelePresence meeting across multiple carrier networks in partnership with BT, and Tata Communications. According to AT&T, this is a very important step in providing Cisco (News - Alert) TelePresence services on a global scale.

 

Enabling people to collaborate seamlessly, Cisco TelePresence creates a live, face-to-face communication experience over the network. It helps people meet, share content, create high-quality video recordings and events. The technology also allows people to consult with experts and deliver powerful personalized services.

 

After AT&T (News - Alert) has conducted Cisco TelePresence meeting across multiple carrier networks, inter-carrier intercompany services can now allow Cisco TelePresence users to call one another across participating networks. The demonstration at Cisco Live 2009 consists of inter-carrier Cisco TelePresence connections between the following sites on AT&T, BT (News - Alert), and Tata Communication's networks.

 

“Inter-carrier connectivity is the next step in building out telepresence for improved collaboration for businesses throughout the world,” said Bill Archer, chief marketing officer, AT&T business solutions, in a statement. “With the AT&T TelePresence Solution we are providing companies today with the ability to interact with customers or other key businesses in a highly-secure environment. Looking to the future, AT&T is committed to working with other network service providers to bring this proof of concept to market as soon as possible.”

 

This announcement comes after recent announcements including Cisco TelePresence Extended Reach for one-screen systems over T-1 speeds, HD video conferencing interoperability, and Cisco WebEx video interoperability. Also, to improve collaboration and productivity and accelerate business decisions, more than 350 companies have selected Cisco TelePresence for more than 2,300 rooms.

 

Cisco has been getting improved productivity and effective collaboration by installing more than 500 Cisco TelePresence rooms on its own internal network.

 

Recently, AT&T enhanced its offer for Cisco’s Telepresence (News - Alert) service. The company claims this solution will help the users to conduct meetings that are encrypted for business and security reasons. AT&T has collaborated with Cisco since 2008 and has facilitated the growth and use of Cisco TelePresence technology and services among businesses and organizations.