Under terms of the contract, AT&T will serve as the primary service provider for West Suburban Bank, delivering AT&T OPT-E-MAN® service, a custom switched Ethernet service to connect multiple sites. The OPT-E-MAN optical transport solution will be used by West Suburban Bank to enhance Internet access and other real-time communication among its locations and with its customers.

West Suburban Bank initially looked to AT&T to help with migrating to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution. With the AT&T OPT-E-MAN service, West Suburban Bank will be able to implement the latest software applications without slowing throughput or causing congestion in the call center. Additionally, by switching to the AT&T OPT-E-MAN scalable service, West Suburban Bank will be equipped to meet the demand for expanded bandwidth and will add redundancy to help ensure that communications will continue and be protected against potential interruptions.

"With locations and customers throughout the state, we need to provide customer service and call center availability constantly, which requires a provider capable of linking our sites on a unified network communications platform," said Edward Garvey, vice president of Facilities for West Suburban Bank. "The solution provided by AT&T will not only address a specific customer need for security but will also cost-effectively allow real-time, flexible communications among our contact centers, which helps us better serve our customers."

The added bandwidth and redundancy that OPT-E-MAN service provides will support future company growth by allowing West Suburban Bank to expand its offerings of technologies and bandwidth-intensive applications as its communications needs grow.