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AT&T: friend or foe?

March 6, 2007 at 3:34 PM by Esme Vos

AT&T is “committed” to municipal wireless. That was the message from Ebrahim Keshavarz, the company’s vice president for new services innovation, at the MuniWireless Conference this week in Dallas.That was the question MuniWireless Conference Associate Producer Joe Panettieri put to Ebrahim Keshavarz, AT&T vice president for new services innovation, at the general session of the MuniWireless conference in Dallas today.

Keshavarz’s answer was unqualified. “Our strategy has changed,” he said, “and we are committed.” In the 60 minutes that followed, Keshavarz outlined the company’s strategy for municipal wireless–a strategy that is, he said, “really about bringing the right solution to the cities.”

Those solutions include Wi-Fi as just one in many solutions that deliver comprehensive telecommunications services, he said, adding that AT&T is “definitely being selective, looking for what’s feasible and what’s possible” in its choice of municipal engagements.

Presently, AT&T is engaged with the cities of Riverside and Napa in California, and with Springfield, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri.

Keshavarz’s appearance at the MuniWireless conference marks a milestone and turning point for both the company and for the municipal broadband movement. Never before has AT&T appeared at one of our events.

Just two years ago, many municipalities were bedeviled by legislative initiatives, sponsored by telcos to block the development of municipal networks.

Responding to a question regarding AT&T’s level of commitment to Keshavarz’s business group, Keshavarz said the group was formed by the chairman of the AT&T following the company’s merger last year with SBC. His job, he said, involves working internally to explain the company’s new strategy regarding municipal deployments as well as communicating it to cities. “We are committed,” he said.

Keshavarz said AT&T is working with a profile of preferred engagements that includes:

  • Applications, seeking municipalities interested in applications such as meter reading and public safety that are “really committed to doing more than must providing an access point.”
  • A profits profile that looks at the local economy and population density and the level of economic investment that will be required.
  • A high level of local commitment with an interest in comprehensive communications solutions. “We’re picking a few cities but we’re committed to building them an entire network.”

    • AT&T build-outs, Keshavarz said, are proceeding according to a “sandbox approach” in which the network is deployed a bit at a time, allowing sufficient time to test and finetune performance and evaluate results in stages.

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