AT&T to launch communication services

AT&T will launch new cloud-based unified communications services on Thursday, giving businesses the ability to integrate chat, email, voice over IP calls, audio and video conferencing and more over desktops and many mobile devices.

AT&T UC Services will be made up of UC Central and UC Voice. UC Central will give a business a single user communications interface for both mobile and desktop computers, while UC Voice will offer IP telephony from an AT&T cloud that can be used alone or with UC Central.

UC Voice will run over the Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution system.

Shawn Conroy, vice president of voice, collaboration and unified communications for AT&T Business Solutions, said the new UC services will allow workers at all sizes of businesses to have easy access to a range of communications for better collaboration.

With UCVoice, a business will not need to buy a new PBX switch or any software licenses.

Conroy called the service simple and affordable, while a spokeswoman said a business can pay per month on an as-needed basis. Other pricing details were not announced.

A virtual launch event is being held at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET Thursday to demonstrate the new service.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at @matthamblen or subscribe to Matt’s RSS feed . His e-mail address is mhamblen@computerworld.com .