AT&T's technology is being deployed to become part of the fabric of the team. "Our objective is simple" says Martin Silman, AT&T Global Director responsible for Portfolio Management. "Formula One is a network centric and network-intensive sport. We want AT&T Williams to have the best network resource available and to make sure that the team has the most resilient, secure, scalable and robust infrastructure there is. I believe if we get this right we can make a significant contribution to the teams overall performance."

Martin explains, the plan is that most race tracks will be hard wired in to the AT&T global network and can become a seamless extension of the teams Virtual Private Network (VPN) provided by AT&T. "One of our compelling, competitive, advantages is our global reach and we are making sure that we can link most venues that host Formula One Grand Prix with a permanent connection to AT&T, even those hard to make connections. This improves our ability to provide resilient connectivity with a robust solution. For the team it means when they arrive on site for a race the network element will be 'plug and play' rather than waiting for a potentially complex and time consuming hook-up to an expensive temporary connection."

It also means that AT&T Williams will benefit from a dedicated secure link. "For most venues the bandwidth provided locally is shared with other teams and on-site users", explains Silman. "This means at busy times the network performance can be impacted as multiple users try to share a limited pool of bandwidth and potentially opens up security concerns. AT&T Williams will have its own dedicated circuit from AT&T for connectivity back to Oxford in the UK and other key locations - such as engine partner Toyota. We will also have our own dedicated technical support at every race - so any issues that need addressing are taken care of immediately."

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