AT&T drives away $10.5m Enterprise Rent-A-Car deal

Enterprise Rent-A-Car is the latest multinational to choose AT&T for far-reaching network. It has signed a three-year $10.5m contract with the provider for a 300-site Frame Relay network.

The deal covers locations in Germany, Ireland and the UK and was signed on the promise of cost, reliability and customer service gains, the car rental company said.

Enterprise will co-locate servers at AT&T's Internet Data Center in the UK, one of 21 such facilities owned and run by the telco around the world.

Several deals in recent months have used IP for virtual private networks (VPNs), for example AT&T being signed up by Allied Domecq. Enterprise in this case said the AT&T Frame Relay network provides the bandwidth necessary to support its browser-based vehicle rental application and office automation software.

Analysts Probe Group recently forecast that though IP VPNs will replace Frame Relay in the long term, "the mature Frame services market still has some years of growth ahead".