The transformation of AT&T, the leader of American Telecom: 30% network virtualization this year
In the face of the impact of Internet companies, telecom operators around the world are facing the crisis of being low-cost and channelized. In order to be reborn in the new market environment, operators have taken the step of transformation. This time, AT&T, the operator with the highest market value in the United States, has taken the lead. AT&T told its employees to transform and adapt to new technologies. For this reason, it launched large-scale employee training activities, and carried out drastic reforms in network architecture adjustment, new business layout and other aspects. AT&T hopes to become a software company based on the cloud, rather than a traditional telecom operator.
On March 4, the reporter interviewed AT&T employees and asked them to tell their stories and feelings in this change. This week, The spokesman of AT&T Company received an exclusive email interview from the reporter, describing their measures and latest progress in the transformation process.
100000 "medals" for employees
In 2012, Randall, Chairman and CEO of AT&T. Stephenson was surprised to find that although employees were familiar with hardware operations, they were at a loss in terms of big data, cloud computing, software programming, etc. Randall believed that such a situation could not promote the transformation of AT&T at all, so an all staff retraining program called "Vision 2020" was launched within AT&T Company.
"Because we need to build cloud services based on SDN (Software Definition Network) technology, we need employees to have more software development capabilities. The technology that AT&T needs employees to master is from hardware to software, from wired to IP and wireless, and from data recorder to data scientist. " AT&T spokesman said. To this end, AT&T cooperates with online education institutions Udacity, Georgia Institute of Technology and other universities to provide employees with various forms of skills training.
up to now, AT&T has issued more than 100000 "medals", which can be seen on the company's internal social networking platform and saved in employees' internal files. Obtaining "Medal" means that the employee has completed all required courses, obtained technical certification or Nanodegree, etc.
Nanodegree is a new type of degree certificate emerging in the United States. Training institutions are specialized in customizing and delivering specialized talents for enterprises. People usually can obtain education certificates by attending highly concentrated courses in a short time. In addition, more than 380 employees have participated in the computer science master program of Georgia Institute of Technology, and now many have graduated and obtained certificates.
30% network virtualization this year
Training employees is only a means, The goal of AT&T is to transform into a software company, change the traditional hardware centric network architecture, and turn to a virtual network using SDN institutions.
"The telecommunications industry is used to spending several years developing and deploying routers, switches and other physical devices to deploy and operate its own network. Today, this model cannot be sustained, and operators need to change from hardware based networks to software based networks. Network virtualization can make the function and business deployment faster, more efficient, and more scalable at low cost. " The spokesman said that in this regard, AT&T leads the ranks of operators.
As early as 2013, AT&T has formulated a huge network plan - "Domain 2.0". According to the plan, the application of new SDN architecture will exceed 5% of network services in 2015, and by 2020, The proportion of SDN based networks should reach 75%. At present, "we have achieved the goal of 5% in 2015, The network of SDN architecture accounts for 5.7% of the total network. As an industry leader and explorer, it is not easy to overcome the difficulties that peers have not encountered, not only in technology, but also in internal culture. But now we have experience, we are preparing to accelerate, and plan to achieve 30% network virtualization in 2016. " The person said.
Become a diversified company
last year, AT&T spent US $49.5 billion to acquire the satellite TV company DirecTV. "Now we have become the world's largest pay TV service provider, providing services to 26 million customers in the United States and 19 million customers in Mexico and the Caribbean." A spokesman for AT&T said.
The spokesman said, The combination of DirecTV and AT&T makes it possible to provide customers with services that integrate large video entertainment with mobile and high-speed Internet services, and cater to customers' entertainment preferences in the future, understand what they like most on traditional TV and what content they like most on mobile devices, AT&T can meet their needs. This combination makes AT&T a leading content distributor on satellite, mobile and broadband platforms.
At present, the competition in the U.S. broadband market is becoming increasingly fierce, especially the entry of Google Fiber, which has brought great pressure to the broadband business of telecom operators, AT&T's core broadband business is facing a severe test of slow internal growth and fierce external competition. Through the acquisition of DirecTV, AT&T cut into new areas, gave full play to its broadband business advantages, and with the help of DirecTV's satellite TV services covering the whole country, it further expanded the U.S. home user market, which also helped AT&T enrich its film and television content on the Internet and wireless devices.
"Now, we are very different from our competitors, and we are more diversified," said the spokesman.
