AT&T's Stephenson: IP transition will start showing cost savings in 3 years

AT&T may have set 2020 as the year when it will transition its traditional telephone network to all IP, but CEO Randall Stephenson says that the carrier will start seeing cost savings by 2016.

"We have a number of initiatives, including Project Agile, which is about streamlining our operations around an IP product set." Stephenson added many of the real savings won't come until they can actually shut down a TDM-based switch that has been primarily used to deliver traditional telephone service and special access services such as DS-1s. "The really big numbers come when you get really close to turning off the switch on the old legacy TDM infrastructure," he said. "There are significant network and IT costs involved in sustaining those products and you don't turn the lion's share of those off till you take that last product out of service." A key element in moving ahead with the IP transition is the Federal Communications Commission. Although AT&T has been one of the leading advocates of the TDM-to-IP transition, the telecommunications company has expressed frustration over the FCC's slow pace in giving it guidance on the next steps to conduct TDM-to-IP trials in two of its 4,500 wire centers. It appears that AT&T is now getting the clarity it needs.