"Further details of AT&T's plans are sketchy, however. The new strategy will involve 'identifying roughly 14 technology domains and selecting two vendors for each. We suspect the domain definitions have yet to be finalized.' Where a dominant vendor in a particular domain can't supply the required capabilities, partnerships will be encouraged.
That would give AT&T a maximum of 28 principal vendors, though that number would likely be somewhat lower, as some large equipment suppliers would likely feature in multiple domains. The analyst estimates that AT&T currently deals with about 40 key vendors. "
