AT&T Partner Solutions: Now With Multi-Gig Internet Speed Services

‘The competition typically doesn’t have the 2 GB and 5 GB availability like AT&T has, so we’re very excited about being able to roll this service out … there’s a lot of excitement from our solution providers in the market about this,’ says Rick Chapes, area vice president of AT&T Partner Solutions.

AT&T’s partner programs now have access to the telecom giant’s multi-gig speeds with AT&T Business Fiber to address brand-new use cases that demand secure, blazing-fast connectivity.

Partners for the first time can offer their businesses customers multi-gig speeds (2 GB and 5 GB) for AT&T Internet Access (AIA). The faster speeds will be available in 5.2 million customer locations in parts of more than 70 metro areas, including Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dallas, Rick Chapes, area vice president of AT&T Partner Solutions, told CRN.

The multi-gig speeds for AIA are now available through all three of the carrier’s channel programs: AT&T Alliance Channel, AT&T Partner Exchange and ACC Business.

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Partners have been increasingly focused on improving digital experiences for their end customers, both enterprises and small, mom-and-pop businesses, all of which are asking for fiber services for high-speed connectivity. Businesses need faster speeds to handle the influx of connected devices and demanding applications, such as videoconferencing and cloud services, Chapes said.

“It all starts with fiber,” he said. “There is a high level of demand for these services from our solution providers.”

Access to faster connectivity speeds is increasing opportunities for partners and boosting AT&T’s competitive stance in the telecom market, Chapes said. “The competition typically doesn’t have the 2 GB and 5 GB availability like AT&T has, so we’re very excited about being able to roll this service out,” he said. “We think we have a competitive advantage and there’s a lot of excitement from our solution providers in the market about this.”

The newly available 2 GB and 5 GB multi-gig speeds compliment AT&T’s existing fiber-based services that partners are offering today, such as AT&T Dedicated Internet and AT&T Switched Ethernet, he added.

“These speeds provide greater bandwidth for households and businesses to run a multitude of devices, all at one time. Multi-gig possesses symmetrical upload and download speeds that are reliable and support next generation technologies,” Chapes said. “Typically, high-speed internet has asymmetrical speeds, but with 2 GB and 5 GB [offering] symmetrical speeds, it makes it a really good value proposition for solution providers.”

Chapes said that interested solution providers can contact their AT&T channel manager to learn more about available customer locations, rates, offers and incentives.

The AT&T Partner Solutions business includes the AT&T Alliance Channel, a program for solution providers, distributors and MSPs that offers a sell-with and sell-to business model for partners that want to own the customer relationship. Alliance Channel partners can choose to be paid upfront or in a residual model. The AT&T Partner Exchange program is intended for reseller partners that can provide tier one support for their end customers and earn recurring revenue from their sales. ACC Business, and indirect-only, sell-to business model for agent partners.

AT&T recently realigned its channel structure to bring Alliance Channel and ACC Business under the Partner Solutions umbrella where the Partner Exchange group already resided to put more of a focus on the channel and give partners more choice in how they interact with the carrier, Chapes said.

“We placed the solution providers at the center of our models, and we work with them on any type of issues and challenges they see in the marketplace. We enable them to use one of these channels to more effectively penetrate the market for us,” he said.

Dallas-based AT&T said that there are more than 675,000 U.S. business buildings lit with fiber, which is bringing high-speed fiber connections to more than 2.75 million U.S. business customer locations. More than 9.5 million business customer locations are within 1,000 feet of AT&T fiber.