AT&T gets GM networking pact

Thursday, February 22, 2007
AT&T gets GM networking pact
Tom Krisher / Associated Press






DETROIT -- Five years ago, General Motors Corp.'s worldwide telecommunications system was lagging its fledgling effort to globalize vehicle design, engineering and manufacturing.

It would take an hour or more for an engineer in Europe to send a large computerized design file to a manufacturing plant overseas.

And then it would take another hour for the plant to send the file back with any changes.

Now, as the company moves toward building more models in more places off the same underpinnings to save billions of dollars, GM and AT&T Inc. have a network in place that allows engineers and plant officials worldwide to simultaneously view data and discuss it.

On Wednesday, GM gave AT&T even more business, awarding it a five-year, $1 billion global networking contract that will prepare the world's largest automaker for whatever electronic breakthroughs lie ahead.
















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