AT&T, Orange Business establish telepresence connectivity pact

AT&T (NYSE: T) and Orange Business Services are combining their collective knowledge in telepresence that will allow their customers to use their respective services from their main and remote sites.

By establishing this agreement, large enterprises will be able to schedule telepresence meetings and connect telepresence endpoints.

Current AT&T Telepresence Solution and Orange Telepresence Community customers using Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) TelePresence endpoints will be able to access the new service.

In addition to reducing obvious travel costs by being able to conduct face to face meetings remotely, the service will take the guesswork out of conducting a videoconferencing call regardless of the network or exchange they are using.   

The new arrangement between the two service providers appears to be part of a new trend where service providers are trying to connect what could be described as telepresence islands.

Of course, AT&T and Orange aren't alone in establishing such agreements. Just this week, Tata Communications (NYSE: TCL) launched a global telepresence effort with nine other domestic and international service providers.

For more:
- see the release

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