At the same time, AT&T also announced that it has enhanced its Global Network Client -- the software used by mobile workers to access their company's Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) -- streamlining logons and adding a new level of security features from these locations and other Wi-Fi hot spots around the world.
Total global Wi-Fi service area offered by AT&T now exceeds more than 48,000 hot spots in 79 countries. This includes service to nearly 15,000 hot spots available to AT&T Remote Access customers in the U.S. in locations such as airports, coffee houses, and restaurants.
"Providing mobile workers with simple, flexible, wireless or wireline access to their corporate infrastructure is a core business initiative for AT&T," said Mark Keiffer, AT&T chief marketing officer-Business. "And AT&T's Wi-Fi service will enhance the global reach of that initiative.
"AT&T will continue to expand its Enterprise Mobility portfolio through technologies like Wi-Fi; as one of many connectivity options that give customers greater ability to work anywhere, at anytime with full access to their corporate applications," Keiffer said.
Mobility has become a critical component of the IT and communications framework for businesses of all sizes. According to Forrester Research, mobile voice and data services such as Wi-Fi access accounted for more than a quarter of North American Enterprise telecommunications budgets in 2006 (1). In Europe, it was even higher at 32 percent. Forrester also reported that up to 20 percent of employees at North American firms used mobile data services last year, and up to 26 percent of workers at global European firms used similar services to access their corporate infrastructures from outside the office.
The additional Wi-Fi hot spots are the latest enhancements to AT&T's Enterprise Mobility Portfolio, which is designed to provide today's mobile workforce with flexible communications solutions and mobile access to their corporate VPNs. Wi-Fi provides AT&T business customers with reliable, access connections from home, corporate locations, international airports, hotels and convention centers to the network through the AT&T Global Network Client.
Working through its global vendor network, AT&T has added Wi-Fi coverage for business customers in Argentina, Bermuda, China, Ecuador, Niger, Peru and South Korea, along with dozens of new airport locations across Europe and Asia. In the U.S., AT&T's expanded Wi-Fi footprint includes new hot spots at 15 additional airports. Most of these hot spots are located in areas open to the public such as terminal gates and food courts.
AT&T now provides Wi-Fi coverage to 81 U.S. airports, including the country's 25 busiest, as well as more than 250 other airports around the world.
Additionally, AT&T has enhanced its Global Network Client with features that make it easier and safer for mobile workers to connect with their companies' VPNs remotely through Wi-Fi services. The new features include:
-- Expanded support for wireless devices from Cingular.
-- Enhancements to the AT&T Endpoint Security service -- a suite of managed personal firewall capabilities -- that helps ensure that software on mobile employees' laptops comply with the same corporate policies for company workstations. This includes validating software patches, anti-virus upgrades, and anti-spyware protection, along with traditional firewall policies.
-- A simplified logon procedure that requires users to enter IDs and passwords only once.
-- A "traveling recall" capability that remembers the router, hot spot and cell tower IDs of a location where users connected to networks previously, dramatically reducing access times.
-- The ability to establish a Wi-Fi connection from a third-party in hot spots for an additional fee paid by the customer.
