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AT&T Lands Billion Dollar GM Networking Contract |
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Thursday, 22 February 2007 |
This contract may be good news for our members across the nation if AT&T commits to employing bargaining unit members to meet this expansion of the network. It is the bargaining unit members who for decades have provisioned and maintained new technology that has been introduced at AT&T. It is through the knowledge, experience and dedication of the occupational union workforce that AT&T has remained a leader in telecommunications. AT&T needs to realize that this work needs to be staffed by full time bargaining unit members to ensure this customer of a network that will exceed expectations.
By Reuters AT&T said on Wednesday it would provide global networking services to General Motors under a five-year contract worth nearly $1 billion. The pact expands on an existing deal and is one of the largest commercial contracts in AT&T's history, the company said. In addition to normal telecommunications services, AT&T will also manage GM's global information technology systems, overseeing the automaker's various IT suppliers around the world to ensure their various systems work together. An existing contract has been in effect since 1999, and GM and AT&T have been working over the past few years to come up with an expanded relationship that consolidates its various services and which can respond to GM's expansion overseas. "It brings simplicity to the overall model and it allows GM to design, engineer and ship cars from anywhere in the world," Ron Spears, executive vice president, global business sales, told Reuters in a phone interview. Enterprise revenue, or sales to business customers, have been one of the weak points at AT&T, which has enjoyed strong earnings growth on the back of higher wireless and high-speed Internet subscriptions. But the segment saw some improvement in the fourth quarter, with revenue down 3.7 percent year-on-year compared with a fall of 5.1 percent in the third quarter. The company says it expects enterprise revenue to return to growth in 2008. |
