AT&T Completes
$28M Upgrade To Better Serve Businesses AT&T Corp.
officials said they are offering business telephone
customers more local services and reliability since
finishing a $28 million upgrading of their network in
the New York area.
The company added four local-exchange switches to
serve Long Island business customers, including one in
Dix Hills and one in Rego Park, as well as on-site
maintenance staffs. Previously, AT&T had local
services, but the company used parts of other company's
networks to carry traffic back to AT&T Manhattan
switching centers.
With the new facilities, AT&T can also allow
customers to keep their existing phone lines, provide
911 services and other offerings, said Robert Sheehan,
sales center vice president for AT&T Growth Markets.
AT&T also announced it has signed a
multimillion-dollar deal to provide local services and a
dedicated fiber link to NetSat Express, a subsidiary of
Hauppauge-based Globecomm Systems Inc.
AT&T competes with Verizon Communications and
dozens of other competitors for business customers for
local service.
-Pradnya Joshi CosmoCom Inc. Pursuing Japanese Market
on Its Own Turf Go east, young technologist...
Hard on the heels of receiving a $40 million
investment from a cadre of blue-chip venture firms,
CosmoCom Inc. said it plans to more aggressively pursue
the Japanese market by opening an office in Tokyo.
Melville-based CosmoCom, which makes automated
customer call center tools that link computers and
telecom products for customer service, said the effort
will augment a series of alliances in the market, which
it has been operating in for a year.
In a statement, Ari Sonesh, president and chief
executive, noted the company's high interest in "the
second largest economy in the world," calling Japan "an
important target market" for its products.
The office will be overseen by Victor Parker, a Great
Neck native who is already the company's country manager
for Japan and Korea.
The company is already moving to expand a sales and
technical support facility in the region.
Planning a jaunt to Tokyo? Look up CosmoCom at Alfa
Plaza, Yoyo-yushi Building, 4th floor.
-Mark Harrington Web-to-Wireless Technology To Be
Marketed Solely in China ...and keep going east.
ThinkersGroup.com, the Great River-based firm
specializing in Web-to-wireless technologies, is
entering into a letter of intent to establish an
agreement with The Hartcourt Companies Inc. to help
market ThinkersGroup.com products in China.
The partnership potentially provides a Chinese
Web-to-wireless solution for any small to large
enterprise, officials at ThinkersGroup.com said.
"Hartcourt's subsidiaries in China have a very
impressive client base," Ray Barton, ThinkersGroup.com's
president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Hartcourt is a holding and development company that
is building a network of Internet and telecommunication
service companies in China in partnership with Chinese
entrepreneurs and government-owned entities.
Hartcourt's business goal for the next three years is
to complete a series of IPOs or spinoffs focused on four
main divisions: StreamingAsia, a streaming content and
Web hosting group in Hong Kong; SinoBull Financial
Group, a multimedia financial data provider; the
Broadband ISP and Internet Infrastructure Group and
Hartcourt Capital Inc., an e-finance transactions
platform.
Techies Confess to Magazine: I'm a Weekend Workaholic
Note to readers: If you are reading this story at the
office on a Saturday, turn off the computer screen and
go home.
A study released this week by Jericho-based trade
magazine VARBusiness says workaholism has become
epidemic in the tech industry, where about one-fifth of
computer professionals interviewed said they work most
weekends.
Other highlights: nearly half of respondents log
between 50 and 70 office hours a week (8 percent
confessed they do 70 hours or more); about one-third
feel that work has affected their personal satisfaction
and physical health, and 13 percent say it has affected
their marriage.
VAR Business, which is published by Manhasset-based
CMP Media, interviewed 335 technology professionals for
the survey. The publication can be accessed at
www.varbusiness.com.
-Harrington
