BEDMINSTER, N.J. -- AT&T today announced it has received the Frost & Sullivan 2004 award for Market Leadership in U.S. Audio Conferencing Services Markets.   The award marks the second consecutive year that the industry analyst firm has recognized AT&T's leadership in the conferencing services industry. 

"AT&T received the 2004 award based on its leading market share position, ability to expand its lead over its nearest competitor, and revenue and minute volume growth within the audio conferencing services industry," Frost & Sullivan noted. 

In its competitive assessment, Frost & Sullivan estimates that AT&T had the leading market share in the 2003 U.S. audio conferencing services market.

The Frost & Sullivan award is presented in conjunction with its strategic analysis of the changing dynamics in the audio conferencing industry, and continued coverage of the conferencing and collaboration marketplace.

AT&T Teleconference Services offers businesses a number of audio conferencing solutions to help them control costs and save money, improve communications between their employees and clients, increase collaboration between organizations to achieve greater efficiency and hold impromptu meetings anytime, anywhere. 

Customers can select a "reservationless" feature for meeting on demand, an executive feature to meet the special needs of high-profile meetings like press conferences and investor relations calls, or Web meeting capabilities for online document and desktop sharing.  AT&T Teleconference Services also offer in-country dial-in access numbers available from 43 countries for businesses with an international presence.

"We're delighted to receive repeated recognition for our conferencing services from Frost & Sullivan," said AT&T Teleconference Services Vice President Sue Soares.  "It caps another great year for us.

"As the leading provider of teleconference services in the industry, we successfully supported billions of conference minutes in 2003, and set our own conference record with about 3,500 simultaneous telephone connections to a   presidential-campaign conference call in September.  Businesses value not only our leadership in teleconference technology and scale, but also the expertise we bring to their table to help them design and operate their applications."

"AT&T continues to expand its position throughout the entire conferencing services industry," said Frost & Sullivan analyst David Alexander.  "Owning one of the strongest brand names throughout the conferencing and telecommunications industry, AT&T's conferencing business has thrived in recent years as many of its larger competitors have experienced financial instability and losses."

Building on its expertise and industry leadership in traditional teleconference services offered over its circuit switched network, AT&T continues to integrate those services with its new IP network to support the evolving conferencing needs of businesses.

For more information on AT&T Teleconference Services, visit http://www.att.com/virtualmeetings.