Around AT&T
Application Innovation
The popularity of applications is skyrocketing as more consumers discover new possibilities. With a diverse mix of apps that both entertain and help our customers get things done, we offer something for everyone, and not just for your wireless phone or PC. We look for new ways to assist developers working on new apps.
Through the AT&T Developer Program, we support each phase of the development process and work to bring exciting new software, equipment, and services to market. With AT&T Apps Beta developers have the chance to test applications with AT&T customers and receive direct consumer feedback before making their applications broadly available. AT&T also hosts Fast Pitch, an event open to developers of consumer applications where they can discuss their ideas and compete for cash and prizes.
Emerging Devices Innovation
We're bringing the power of our network to more devices, people and places. Industry analysts predict that enabling consumer electronics and machine-to-machine devices with wireless connectivity will drive consumer demand and industry innovation.
Mobile broadband and the emerging devices it enables extend beyond the traditional handset and SmartPhone. AT&T is bringing the power of the network to more people and places by rethinking what's possible across a broad range of devices. For example, Vitality Glowcaps are pill caps that use the network to remind people to take medicine; Aphisphere's networked dog collars help people track the location of their canine friends; the Vizit photo frame from Isabella helps people share photos in new ways; and the AIRDEX™ shipping pallet from American Security Logistics enables real-time shipment tracking across the globe.
Environment & Sustainability Innovation
Strengthening Communities
Education
AT&T provides products and services that can help teachers and students achieve some of the educational objectives by thinking outside of the box. Learn more about Economic Stimulus for Education.
STEM
AT&T's commitment to education and STEM is as much a part of our legacy as our future. We invest in a number of mentoring initiatives in an effort to guide and inspire students who will become the innovators of tomorrow.
In addition to a number of AT&T Labs partnerships focused on increasing the number of STEM students, AT&T works to help to develop the next generation of innovators through the programs that include the National Operations Development Center (NODC) at the University of Texas El Paso. As part of the program, UTEP students have an opportunity to work on engineering projects at AT&T.
Learn more about the AT&T Labs' internship and fellowship program.
Learn more about STEM education initiatives at AT&T.
Health Care
AT&T innovators are working to help improve patient care by finding cutting-edge ways to connect doctors, hospitals and patients.
AT&T helps move patient records from paper files to secure digital databases. Today, we offer a solution called AT&T Healthcare Community Online (HCO), which allows hospitals, doctors and healthcare payers to exchange e-records using the AT&T network and a secure dashboard accessible over the Web. Physicians can access an entire practice, a specific patient or particular areas of treatment—which reduces duplicate tests, enables quicker diagnoses and allows multiple doctors to have virtual "hallway consultations" in order to assess a patient's needs.
Learn more about HCO and other AT&T healthcare research, investment and innovation.
Watch a video overview of AT&T healthcare initiatives.
International Relief Work
AT&T is also innovating to assist with relief work abroad. In July 2010, AT&T announced that it is providing support to National Organization for the Advancement of Haitians (NOAH), specifically for an earthquake relief project that will help ensure the supply of sustainable and safe water in remote locations in Haiti. As part of this NOAH-led project, AT&T works with one of its small business customers, Atlanta-based Water Transit Solutions (WTS), to supply an innovative technology solution to remote water relief requirements in Haiti. WTS provides water and ice solutions for just-in-time deployment during hurricanes, disasters and other events.
AT&T and WTS will deploy in Haiti a Radio Frequency Identification asset visibility technology to deliver clean water. In Haiti, WTS will deploy water tanks and delivery trucks, equipped with AT&T-designed M2M asset tracking technology. With centralized filling stations outside Port au Prince, WTS will work with on-site engineers to map delivery locations throughout Haiti. These delivery trucks hold up to 1,250 gallons of water and can provide an estimated 2,500 people with clean drinking water each day.
Read more about AT&T's Haitian Earthquake Relief Effort.
Environment
At AT&T, we're working to create a cleaner, more sustainable tomorrow. We're committed to applying investments, research and innovation to pressing environmental issues.
Exploring Data Center Energy Consumption
We recognize that growing demand for our products makes data center efficiency a major challenge for us. In 2009, the AT&T Labs established an initiative to analyze the energy consumption of software in a data center to determine if various infrastructure arrangements, individual devices and applications, or operating systems could help the data center to run more efficiently. Results may help IT leaders design greener data centers that require far less energy, resulting in lower costs of operation.
AT&T Global Media Environmental Module (GMEM)
In 2009, AT&T developed the Global Media Environmental Module (GMEM), which compresses the footprint of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) equipment into a reduced amount of space in a single facility by arranging products in a new, optimized configuration. By consolidating ICT equipment into one building, we were able to conserve energy and resources: the GMEM design reduced space required by 40 percent, initial construction costs by 36 percent, and first year cooling energy by 40 percent.
Visit the Innovation section of our C&S Report to learn more about these environmentally related initiatives.
Connecting People and Business
Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions—comprising hardware, software and broadband technologies—have the ability to enable people and businesses to make more energy-efficient choices and reduce environmental impact and costs, by:
- Moving work to people rather than people to work
- Connecting rather than traveling
- Managing business remotely and in real time
- Improving transportation and distribution systems
Learn more about sustainably connecting.
Telepresence
A great example of ICT technology is AT&T's Telepresence SolutionSM. Telepresence Solution offers an "in person" meeting experience to participants who could be located all over the world. Recently, AT&T teamed up with the Carbon Disclosure Project to quantify financial and environmental benefits of Telepresence. The resulting study found that:
- By 2020, U.S. and U.K. businesses with revenues over $1 billion can cut nearly 5.5 million metric tons of CO2 emissions (4.6 million metric tons CO2 in the U.S.; 940,000 metric tons CO2 in the U.K.) by using the technology, which is the greenhouse gas (GHG) equivalent of removing more than one million passenger vehicles from the road for one year.
- Over the same period, U.S. and U.K. businesses can also achieve economy-wide financial benefits of almost $19 billion ($15b in the U.S.; nearly $4b in the U.K.), by substituting telepresence for some business travel.
- A business implementing four telepresence rooms could achieve a financial return on its investment (ROI) in as little as 15 months; save nearly 900 business trips in the first year of using telepresence; and reduce emissions by 2,271 metric tons over five years—the GHG equivalent of removing 434 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.
- The technology also helps improve employee productivity, provides a better work life balance and helps speed decision-making and processes.
Learn more about the Telepresence Revolution.
Universal Design
AT&T's commitment to innovation and accessibility has led to the development, by the AT&T Labs and AT&T's business partners, of a series of industry-changing products and services. The process used in developing these products that are easily used by all is called Universal Design. As a result of our commitment to this principal, AT&T has the largest accessible mobility portfolio of any U.S. service provider.
When sidewalks began including curb cuts to ease access by wheelchair users, society suddenly found out that people riding bikes, pushing strollers and others benefitted as well. We know that the application of Universal Design principles can make new things possible for all users. For example, AT&T's new Voicemail-to-Text service can text you a transcript of your voice mail messages. Not only can this save time, but it enables customers who are deaf or have partial hearing loss to read their messages.
Learn more about AT&T Universal Design.
Human Resources Innovation
AT&T Human Resources is rethinking how to help people search for jobs. When we launched the AT&T Jobs App on the App Store, it was the first application designed by a company specifically to promote its own job listings. Those interested in jobs at AT&T can also find the latest on the HR twitter channel, attjobs, or check out the College Connection Facebook page.
Local Search & Advertising Innovation
Interactive is an industry leader in rethinking local search products and services that empower consumers to find and connect with businesses across the devices and interactive platforms they use most — including online, mobile, and TV. By taking the best of local and new media, AT&T Interactive is creating cost-effective advertising solutions that generate leads for advertisers.
We've evolved the local search experience with the launch of YP.COM and extended to mobile with YPmobile — our mobile local search apps — offered across mobile devices and platforms. You also have maximum flexibility to explore locally with the availability of YP.COM on your TV with AT&T U-verse.
Customer Care
Video and Social Customer Service
ATT.com recently received high marks from a technology research company's review that looked at online customer service offerings from wireless carriers. The review examined more than 100 criteria in 9 major categories. AT&T came out on top in video and social customer service. The social category was particularly competitive, with AT&T and three other companies scoring points for best practices, including identifying contributor information (activity level or date joined, ratings of the usefulness of responses, and well-organized content.) The report singled out AT&T for its work in video, where we provide thumbnails or text to describe the content, give users control of the video play, and provide relevant and accessible support content.
Virtual Expert
In late 2010, AT&T began testing a "virtual expert" service: an online presence to assist customers with specific questions on remote control and media sharing issues. The virtual expert technology will soon be embedded throughout ATT.com with the ability to understand a customer's intent by virtue of analyzing the syntax of their comments or questions.
Small Business
With cutting-edge mobile solutions, cloud-based services and emerging customer support technology, AT&T is driving innovation for small businesses. Offering the latest smartphones, tablets and mobile broadband data cards, AT&T allows small businesses to extend sophisticated mobile capabilities to their workforce. Moreover, AT&T delivers industry-specific mobility applications focused on enhancing productivity through real-time information and location-based services. The company's proprietary Small Business Mobile Application Recommender Tool (SMART) enables small businesses to easily identify which mobile applications best meet specific business needs.
Utilizing cloud-based technology, AT&T transforms devices, networks and services – such as computing and data storage – for small businesses, while facilitating on-demand availability for these technologies. Added flexibility allows businesses to turn off or on, and scale up or down, depending on individual business growth and demands.
AT&T is trialing high-def telepresence videoconferencing kiosks at select AT&T retail stores, allowing customers to receive face-to-face interaction in real-time with small business experts on topics ranging from technical support, purchasing recommendations and even website hosting, online data backup and other critical business services.
U-verse®*
AT&T U-verse is changing the way you watch TV. By utilizing our 100-percent Internet Protocol (IP) network, we're able to provide customers with a better TV experience.
You can enjoy your U-verse experience across screens, with content available on U-verse TV, U-verse Online, U-verse Mobile, and U-verse TV on gaming consoles. With U-verse you can watch what you want, when you want, how you want. It's TV like you've never seen before.
U-verse also offers several interactive apps that give you more control. Apps play an important role in making our services more personalized and more relevant to our customers and their interests. We're continually rolling out new apps to customers at no extra charge.
This is only the beginning of what we can do with our IP network. Stay tuned.
* Geographic and service restrictions apply to AT&T U-verse services. Call or go to www.att.com/u-verse to see if you qualify.
Wi-Fi/Broadband
The number of people using Wi-Fi enabled devices in the marketplace is growing at a rapid pace, and so is our customers' desire and need to stay connected on the go.
AT&T is a pioneer in Wi-Fi. We operate the nation's largest Wi-Fi network with more than 24,000 hotspots in popular locations across the country*.
We were one of the first broadband providers to make Wi-Fi available to customers at no additional charge, and we work aggressively with handset manufacturers and consumer electronics companies to embed Wi-Fi into devices.
We're continuing to drive unique uses of Wi-Fi as part of our ongoing effort to provide the best possible broadband experience for our customers. We've launched AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones in major cities where we're seeing high customer traffic and mobile data use. We're the only major mobile operator using Wi-Fi in this way.
We've designed new approaches to extend mobile broadband coverage in stadiums and large gatherings, and we've installed temporary Wi-Fi hotspots for access at events happening across the country.
* Largest based on branded and operated hotspots.
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