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Author: Jan Dawson
Both AT&T and Verizon Business (VZB, formerly MCI) announced on Wednesday that some of their previously US-only offerings would be made available in Europe (and other parts of the world). AT&T is extending its "Network Integration" professional services offerings globally, while VZB is extending some of its enterprise VoIP offerings to customers in Europe, South Africa and Australia.
It appears to be a coincidence that both announcements came on the same day, but both are positive for European customers and potential customers of these US carriers.
MCI has been saying for several years that it would extend its VoIP offerings, especially IP centrex, to Europe, but so far it has been unable to do so because of a number of technical, regulatory and cultural reasons. Now, the Verizon acquisition appears to have helped it get the final steps in place to take the offer to a number of additional countries, along with managed IP PBX, IP trunking and IP Integrated Access offers.
This now makes Verizon Business one of the first operators to have an IP centrex offering on both sides of the Atlantic, and makes a much fuller range of VoIP offerings for enterprises available in Europe, a key factor in capturing the increasingly fragmented demand from enterprises in the VoIP space.
Although AT&T's Network Integration Services have been successful in the US, the expansion of the offering globally means that it will be able to serve MNCs much better than before, taking on global network integration projects with its professional services expertise.
Both announcements should help these carriers begin to overcome the perception that they are US-centric, and help them to compete for business with European companies. Although home-grown competitors such as BT Global Services and FT/Equant have more developed capabilities in these areas in Europe today, these steps by VZB and AT&T are important in helping them close the gap. And their comparative strength in the US provides a counterbalance to both BT and Equant, whose capabilities in the US are considerably weaker than in Europe.
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