OREANDA-NEWS. December 18, 2014. AT&T unveils Brocade Communications Systems (NASDAQ: BRCD), Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) and Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) as the latest companies to join the Domain 2.0 supplier program to help build out AT&T’s next-generation network.

Earlier this year, AT&T announced plans for its next-generation network that includes the latest design techniques from software-defined networking and network function virtualization to make our network faster, simpler and more scalable. The vision places customers at the center of the network with a modern, cloud-based architecture, a global first at this scale.

This initiative builds on the company’s best-in-class network status and is expected to accelerate time-to-market with technologically-advanced products and services, providing customers with more control and ability to add new services on-demand and in near real-time.

“With Domain 2.0, we are seeking out agile and disruptive suppliers to help us innovate more quickly as we drive forward towards our next-generation network vision,” said Susan Johnson, senior vice president, AT&T Global Supply Chain.

Since the first announcement, AT&T revealed additional suppliers’ involvement in Domain 2.0 in April and July, with 10 vendors in the program to date. These companies play various roles to drive the creation of the next-generation network.

AT&T is not revising its previously announced capital expenditure guidance as a result of this announcement. However, in the next five years, AT&T expects its next-generation network to reflect a downward bias toward capital spending. This will come from relying less on specialized hardware and deploying more open source and reusable software.