Supernova 2007: because technology is everyone's business

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Perspective: Eric Shepcaro, AT&T

Excerpts and paraphrasing from a conversation with Eric Shepcaro, VP, Business Development, AT&T

Q: How do you overcome the legacy of being slow moving?
A: The industry has been through dramatic change, with the entrance of new competitors, consolidation, emergence of new technologies. We talked to our customers to find out what they wanted. The network was going to be the enabler of all the services. Customers are going global. We had to make choices. We’re transforming the network into a software based network, so we can launch new services more quickly. We also have an ecosystem of partners to manage niche services to meet consumer business requirements.

Q: Where’s the line between your services and what others do on the network?
A: As we built out the capabilities with a service-oriented architecture, it’s a more open architecture. It’s about the user experience and interface. We work with others who can deliver core components. When you talk about companies like Skype and Vonage, customers want more than just voice service. We can combine services and compete effectively. Security is also a strength for AT&T. We’ve built an anomaly detection capability to detect threats.

Q: Is the price of voice connectivity going to zero?
A: We’ve seen the price come down. But it’s only one application on the network. It’s the whole interactive communication experience.

Q: Network neutrality is controversial. Should you choose what people can do on the network?
A: The term and concept is misunderstand. We’re not going to block anyone from getting access to content across the web. What we’ve said is that we’ve invested in the network. We provide managed services to businesses for premium, quality delivery. In the consumer world, it’s the same as offering premium delivery. If a content provider wants to provide premium delivery over our network, we talk to them about offering a managed IP environment.

Q: Why should we trust AT&T?
A: we’re looking to deliver quality services to end user customers. It’s a competitive landscape. We don’t need a more restrictive government environment.

Q: What had to change to enable innovation and be competitive?
A: We picked key focus areas, like wireless technology. We asked what it would take to meet our customers requirements. Developing new services as part of business development, we had to get services out more quickly.

Q: This is a regulated industry, and regulations change. How do you innovate within that context?
A: Regulation doesn’t prohibit us from innovating. But it affects how we share information, and what we can collaborate and communicate on.

Q: What kind of company do you want to be?
A: We aspire to be a networking and entertainment company.