GM Awards AT&T $1 Billion Networking Contract

AT&T announced today that it won the bid for a five-year global networking contract with General Motors. Valued at almost $1 billion, the AT&T-GM deal is one of the largest commercial contracts AT&T has ever inked, according to a press release the telecom company issued today.

“This agreement is a strategic step toward strengthening telecommunications across our global enterprise,” said GM Group VP and CIO Ralph Szygenda in the press release. “It ensures that we have the basic infrastructure in place to give GM employees anywhere in the world the ability to collaborate online in real time on engineering, manufacturing, design and supply chain. It is expected to increase productivity and collaboration and to maximize GM’s global network.”

The contract amplifies an existing agreement under which AT&T provides GM with a global VPN solution that includes local, long distance, global voice mail, conferencing, high-speed Internet access and business continuity services.

Pursuant to the new agreement, AT&T will offer GM next-generation telecom solutions as well as network integration management covering all aspects of GM’s global telecom infrastructure, including voice and data applications and systems support. AT&T also becomes one of GM’s strategic technology suppliers and will be responsible for managing the performance of important regional telecom companies around the world.

—Meridith Levinson