Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX), the leading provider of customer experience systems and services, today announced it has been selected by AT&T, the leader in the connected car, for the AT&T Drive Studio, a new center to spur the development of connected-car services and applications. AT&T announced its connected car initiative Jan. 6 at the 2014 Developer Summit alongside the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Expanding its longstanding AT&T relationship into the emerging connected car market, Amdocs also said it will enable AT&T to enhance its offering by supporting innovative business models with its auto industry partners. The solution will provide charging, billing and partner relationship management integrated with AT&T’s existing capabilities.
These unique capabilities will enable AT&T to split the connectivity charges for separate services occurring in the same car, so that consumer apps – such as navigation and entertainment – can be billed to consumers, while connectivity for car diagnostics, vehicle telematics and safety services may be included in an automaker’s subscription charge. This split-billing capability also opens up a host of promotional opportunities for auto OEMs, app and content providers and others in the connected car eco-system – facilitating, for example, offers for a free year of internet music service.
The new AT&T Drive Studio, based in Atlanta blocks away from the AT&T Foundry innovation center, will serve as a hub to create and demonstrate new solutions for the connected car, with the focus on safety, convenience and entertainment. The AT&T Drive Studio will enable auto manufacturers to explore new automotive connectivity solutions that could include 4G/LTE, cloud solutions, virtual assistants, data services and new entertainment offerings.
“The car is about to become essentially one more connected device on a customer’s shared data plan,” said Chris Penrose, senior vice president, emerging devices, AT&T Mobility. “The Connected Car market is an area of strategic importance for AT&T, and it was only natural to team up with Amdocs, whose dynamic solutions continue to provide new monetization capabilities.”
“We look forward to being a key part of the AT&T Drive ecosystem, working with AT&T and automakers to help create the innovative services that will drive the connected car market,” said Rebecca Prudhomme, vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs. “Amdocs’ flexible billing and data monetization solutions can support the new connected-car billing models we’re likely to see, in which new in-car applications may need to allocate billing charges between the automaker, service provider and consumer—a great opportunity for service differentiation.”
