AT&T

Before visiting AT&T I knew very little about what they truly do. I believed that they were strictly a cell phone service provider with no implications to the physical world. However, this belief was proven wrong quickly. I was impressed by first walking into a room with advanced technology in which one can swipe his/her hand over the table and he/she can learn about what the company truly does. Overall, my favorite part of the experience was when I was sitting in the media room (or so I thought) and we were watching a short presentation about the company through video. Once the video was over, the curtain lifted, unveiling giant windows that reveal the companies Global Network Operations Center (GNOC) three stories down.
The Global Operations Network is home to over 140 giant TV screens that show the news, topography, and most importantly network activity. Personally, I found this to be very interesting because this represents the magnitude of AT&T's presence in the world through many more ways than imagined. At AT&T, the Global Operations Network acts as a warning signal for something that is occurring or can occur. For every cell tower, AT&T has a performance objective. AT&T focuses on an effort for preemption in order to not impact the customers in a negative way. Preemption is very significant to AT&T because it represents AT&T's loyalty to their customers to ensure that those very customers are #1. Global Operations has been around for over 100 years and is considered the most important part of AT&T's infrastructure. Overall, Global Operations not only finds a solution to fixing problems but more importantly enables current things to become more efficient.