Stephenson: It All Hinges on Wireless

More than a million customers have signed up to get more information on the Apple iPhone, for which AT&T initially will be the sole service provider, and 40 percent of those individuals are not AT&T customers, the telecom giant’s newly minted Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said today in his NXTcomm opening keynote address, during which he also announced the launch of AT&T’s wireless Video Share service.

“I really believe this is going to be a game changer” for both AT&T and the industry as a whole, Stephenson said of the iPhone, the combination cell phone/iPod/Internet access device, which becomes available in 10 days.

New AT&T Inc. CEO Randall Stephenson opens NXTcomm with his keynote address.

To prepare for the iPhone launch, AT&T hired and trained hundreds of new employees to support it, and rebranded all its Cingular stores to AT&T, he said.

Stephenson also used his keynote to announce the launch of AT&T Video Share, which the company says is the “first-ever service in the U.S. that allows users to share live video over their wireless devices while participating in a voice call.”

AT&T Video Share is now available in Atlanta, Dallas and San Antonio. Additional markets within AT&T’s 3G network footprint, which covers more than 160 U.S. markets, will begin coming online in late July. A Video Share-capable handset is required and two Video Share service packages will be available, with prices of $4.99 each month for 25 minutes of Video Share usage, or $9.99 each month for 60 minutes of usage. Users may also choose to pay as they go and pay 35 cents a minute each time they use the service.

Video Share, AT&T’s first IMS-based offering, is a wireless-only service but ultimately will be accessible over the PC and TV as well, as part of AT&T’s “three-screen” strategy.


Stephenson says he believes the Apple iPhone is going to be a "game changer."

As Video Share demonstrates, Stephenson said, AT&T believes wireless is the linchpin for communications services. He said wireless is the most important and personal buying decision for a household, and once people make the wireless choice, they then decide on phone and broadband services. That’s why it’s so important to lead with wireless, he said, and why it is so advantageous for AT&T to offer a product like the iPhone, which “customers just can’t wait to get their hands on.”

AT&T also will lead with wireless on the business side, said Stephenson, adding that the company already allows businesses to do a single monthly revenue commitment for both wireline and wireless, but that this cross-pollenization of wireless and wireline is just a start.

Of course, wireless is just part of the AT&T offer, he added, offering an update on U-verse, which is now available in 21 markets, with 600 daily installations and is expected to reach 10,000 installations per week by the end of next year. The service is now in 8 million homes, with 18 million homes expected to be installed by the end of 2008.

AT&T Inc. www.att.com
AT&T Video Share www.att.com/videoshare

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