Winterthur U.S. Group Awards AT&T Contract for $3.6 Million Voice Over Internet Upgrade

April 27, 2005; 10:45 AM

April 27, 2005 - SUN PRAIRIE, Wis. - AT&T announced today it has won a five-year, $3.6 million contract to deploy an Internet Protocol telephony solution for Winterthur U.S Holdings Inc., a leading provider of property and casualty insurance.  

Under the agreement, AT&T will upgrade Winterthur's network to a uniform platform for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. The network supports the company's 2,400 employees and its structure of 22 regional and field offices spread throughout the United States.

Based in Sun Prairie, Wis., Winterthur U.S. Holdings is an umbrella organization for General Casualty (Sun Prairie, Wis.) and Unigard insurance companies (Bellevue, Wash.), providing information technology services and other administrative support.

With the AT&T networking solution, Winterthur gains a unified voice and data networking platform that relies on VoIP in all branch offices across the United States. The networking solution unifies three legacy systems and enables Winterthur to rely on a leaner, more centralized IT team to manage its network.

"We needed to replace our aging voice infrastructure and improve services to our front offices while streamlining operations, but we also needed to protect our customers from service interruption during the implementation," said Kathleen Rowe, Sr. Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Winterthur U.S. Holdings. "AT&T offered a competitively-priced solution and is committed to delivering high-quality service."

An IP-based converged networking environment opens the door to a variety of advanced features, including integrated messaging capabilities, voice e-mail, bandwidth on demand and Web-based voice portals. IP telephony also offers simplified provisioning, moves, changes or additions of individual phones.

About AT&T
For more than 125 years, AT&T (NYSE "T") has been known for unparalleled quality and reliability in communications.  Backed by the research and development capabilities of AT&T Labs, the company is a global leader in local, long distance, Internet and transaction-based voice and data services.

About Winterthur U.S. Holdings, Inc.
Winterthur U.S. Holdings, Inc. is an umbrella organization that oversees and provides business services to General Casualty (Sun Prairie, Wis.) and Unigard (Bellevue, Wash.) insurance companies in the finance, human resources, actuarial, legal, corporate communications, and information technology functional areas. Winterthur's U.S. operations recorded direct written premiums last year of $1.5 billion and employ approximately 2,400 people in offices throughout the U.S.