**Editor’s Note: Click here for a list of recent channel-program changes you should know or here for Channel Partners’ extensive coverage of AT&T’s inaugural Partner Exchange Summit.**

AT&T PARTNER EXCHANGE SUMMIT — AT&T said on Tuesday that it is more closely aligning its partner programs.

The carrier’s Emerging Business Markets (EBM) group, which launched two years ago in conjunction with the introduction of AT&T Partner Exchange – its channel program for solution providers – will now be home to its wholesale and ACC Business programs.

AT&T says this will allow it to bring the innovative toolset it has developed for its Partner Exchange members to these other partners.

“Our desire is for solution providers and wholesalers to be able to do business with AT&T how they want to,” said Brooks McCorcle, president of AT&T’s Emerging Business Markets, in an interview with Channel Partners at the company’s inaugural Partner Exchange Summit in Irving, Texas. “Do you want a direct relationship with our direct retail team? Do you want to just transact business through AT&T Partner Exchange, a wholesale model or an agent model? How can we help you be more successful? That is really the notion behind setting up our indirect channels together so we’re aligned with our purpose and our priorities.”

McCorcle said that aligning these indirect channels has always been in the cards, saying that the successful development of EBM’s innovative model of collaboration and openness made this the right time for the consolidation. There are already a fair number of the company’s partners who dabble in more than one of its programs.

AT&T’s Alliance Channel, which works with traditional telecom agent partners, will remain a separate entity for now, but McCorcle wouldn’t rule out it becoming part of the EBM group in the future.

“The tools we’re building are AT&T’s tools. And they can be used across the business,” she said.

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