Let’s face it. that is nothing new. For years one of Cisco’s channel partners has been SBC, Bell South and other now AT&T owned companies, working on the front lines as integrators as far back as at least 2001. AT&T has plus been one of Cisco’s best customers, buying lots of routers. The big honking types that invent it possible for all the traffic that is IP to work very smoothly.

So the latest “marketing” hook up, to sell Telepresence to the corporate market, by the two giants working together.

It’s a triple win all around whether the customers buy. I predict they will. Here’s why:

1) Bandwidth will go to more places now via AT&T and their carrier partners who will insure ample pipe to

construct an endpoint work

2) Video conferencing technology is at a point where its no longer the fuzzy picture. It works. Look at the in room like quality of SightSpeed (client), the portable video on the Nokia N810 and yes even Skype has achieved to see just how good laptop video is. Now add in the kind of processors that Cisco’s Telepresence delivers, some fat pipe from AT&T that’s being managed from end to end and you get an experience, not simply a picture.

3) The Green Movement-nothing will propel more adoption of video conferencing than the environmental issues other than one more tied to it factor. Gas and travel. These are lynch pins to driving the acceptance.

Original post by Andy Abramson