AT&T, Unisiti Build Up Cosco

SHANGHAI, China -- AT&T and UNISITI, the first Sino-foreign telecom services joint venture in China, have been awarded a contract to build the Asia Pacific network of China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), a global leader in the shipping and logistics industry. The new VPN-based network supports COSCO's strategy to establish Shanghai as its global hub of operation. This major contract involves linking COSCO's global network and data centre based in Pudong, Shanghai with the company's regional offices throughout the Asia Pacific, including Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Leveraging UNISITI's advanced broadband network and its seamless connection to the AT&T Global Network, AT&T and UNISITI together provide an end-to-end, fully managed Wide Area Network for COSCO's mission critical applications at its Asia Pacific offices. The successful bid was attributed to the close cooperation and teamwork between AT&T and UNISITI, together with strong support from China Telecom. Also cited was the ability to offer a global seamless solution to COSCO. This combination of a strong partnership and global capabilities enabled the companies to win COSCO's regional business despite strong competition. Shortly after winning the Asia Pacific contract, AT&T and UNISITI were also successful in winning the contract for COSCO's European Wide Area Network, which covers Germany, France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain. The contract is for Managed Data Network Services on a frame relay platform. A key factor in AT&T and UNISITI's success in winning the European bid was their ability to deliver the solution in an extremely short lead-time. COSCO also wanted a consistent service platform across their entire network, and based on the success of the Asia Pacific solution they felt confident about entrusting their European network to the AT&T and UNISITI team. In awarding the contract to AT&T and UNISITI, General Manager of COSCO's computer centre, Mr. Gu Qianbin said "AT&T and UNISITI, supported by China Telecom are the ideal partners for COSCO in this project, as we embark on our worldwide expansion plans." AT&T Corp.Unisiti