China Telecom and AT&T have announced an expanded partnership to provide business telecom services to multinationals in the Chinese market.
The new agreement is aimed at facilitating communication between multinational companies and China, and between Chinese multinationals and the US, the operators announced.
AT&T will expand its Chinese IP-VPN service in China to more parts of the nation, while China Telecom and AT&T will connect their MPLS-based IP networks in the US to give Chinese multinationals a greater presence there. The operators also plan offer bilateral WiFi roaming.
The partners have also announced they may expand the agreement to cover joint development of services such as videoconferencing, and to supporting each others' efforts in other regions of the world.
China Telecom and AT&T have been partners since 2000, when they – along with Shanghai Information Investment Co – formed joint venture Shanghai Symphony Telecom. AT&T itself has had a presence in China for around 20 years.
The new agreement comes the week after China Unicom and Spain's Telefonica revealed they would extend their own partnership to cover PoP access in 44 countries spanning APAC, Europe and Latin-America.