AT&T accelerates SDN vision by extending network on demand capability to 100 cities

AT&T (NYSE: T) has taken another step forward with its software-enabled service vision, announcing that its switched Ethernet service with its Network on Demand capability is available in more than 100 U.S. cities.

By using the Network on Demand feature, businesses can go to an online portal to order additional ports, add or change services, or increase bandwidth to accommodate fluctuating needs and manage their network.

What all of this means is that customers can more effectively plan and quickly react to changes in their business needs. A user can immediately increase bandwidth in just a few minutes, a process that once took weeks of manual processes.

This latest service drive builds on its previous move to bring the on-demand capabilities to its Texas market, where AT&T initially enabled Austin-based businesses to order, add or change Ethernet services in an on-demand basis.

Adding this feature to its Ethernet service suite makes sense since it directly complements its drive to equip more buildings with fiber to deliver more higher speed cloud and Ethernet services. Through the fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) program as part of its multi-billion dollar Project VIP initiative it debuted in 2012, the service provider has set a goal to reach 1 million business customer locations with fiber.

Similar to its growing GigaPower U-verse service for residential customers, AT&T has been aggressively driving 1 Gbps speeds into more business sites. When it launched the 1 Gbps service initiative for businesses last September, the new service initially offered speeds of up to 300 Mbps with a path to offer up to 1 Gbps. Eligible customers can also choose from a mix of symmetric and asymmetric speeds that go as low as 25 Mbps.

Although Ethernet was the initial focus of the SDN-enabled bandwidth on demand service, AT&T plans to expand the offering to other services such as Internet VPN and VoIP in various markets it serves.

With a software-defined networking (SDN) construct at its core, the AT&T Network on Demand capability is being deployed as part of the User Defined Network Cloud (UDNC) strategy it debuted last February.

For more:
- see the release

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