Posted on 07/21/2004 9:29:43 AM PDT by HAL9000
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Corp.'s board is considering phasing out local and long-distance phone service to U.S. consumers, a potential watershed for a company that until 20 years ago had a virtual monopoly on the country's phone service, according to a newspaper report Wednesday.AT&T's current management team, led by Chairman and Chief Executive David Dorman, has apparently reached a consensus that the company's future lies entirely with corporate and business customers, the Wall Street Journal said.
The board of directors at AT&T was expected to discuss the possible move at a meeting that began Tuesday night and is to continue Wednesday, the newspaper said, citing unspecified people familiar with the matter.
Any such plan could be modified, or rejected altogether, the Journal said.
AT&T would not cut off its existing 35 million residential customers under such a plan. Instead, it would cease marketing residential phone service to consumers. Without advertising and the barrage of telephone and mail solicitations to consumers, those customers would fall off significantly over time, according to the report.
An AT&T representative could not immediately be reached for comment.
Last month, AT&T said it would stop competing for local and long-distance residential customers in seven states after a court threw out regulations giving it cheap access to the dominant local telephone networks. The company said it would continue to sell those services to business customers and current residential customers.
Copyright 2004 Reuters All rights reserved.
I use SBC for my local phone and use my cell phone for long distance needs. With VOIP coming out now, I think we are going to see a lot of changes with telecom industry real soon. Basically if companies don't adapt they die...
Of course, I was just joking about the horsewhipping Ed Whitacre, but the damage he has done to the U.S. economy over the last decade is incalculable. He has squandered our technological advantage and the rest of the world is catching up. At this rate, China will soon have a better telecommunications infrastructure that the U.S. - thanks to Ed Whitacre.
Explain how Ed has hurt the economy and what China has to do with anything going on here? Also, the Chinese government plays a major role in their telecom infrastructure developent.
at+t will be phased out shortly itself.
He has let the SBC network rot. He cancelled Project Pronto - which was pitifully inadequate to start with. He tried to use $10 billion that was earmarked for network upgrades and tried to buy DirecTV. He has spent millions on congressmen, cabinet officials and lobbyists to pass laws to outlaw competiton for local service. In short - he's a scumbag.
Also, the Chinese government plays a major role in their telecom infrastructure developent.
We have government-granted exclusive franchises and utility laws in this country too.
Hmmm... I use AT&T long distance for $25/mo flat rate and unlimited calling. Are there better plans?
I spend less than $25/mo on long distance so this AT&T plan wouldn't work for me. I like onesuite.com for long distance. I cancelled AT&T about five years ago when they charged me $3 for making no long distance calls that month.
Thanks for the info., Hal..."bump" to check back later!
Red
It depends on your calling pattern. AT&T offers several unadvertised plans. You always need to ask if they have anything better. For example, the $25.00 plan is domestic only. If you make a lot of calls to Europe, a much smaller fee will get you as low as 10 cents a minute. You then need to pair that with a domestic plan. If you pay about $5 for 7 cents a minute, Your break even point is about 4.75 hours of long distance a month.
bttfl
Their 70 year old model doesn't work any more.
Depends how much you use it, of course.
I currently use Big Red Wire. In the city I'm moving to, they are 2.7 cents state-to-state and 3.5 cents within the state. No fees or anything else except taxes.
Good for you. BellSouth sucks. We had a nightmare trying to get our phone activated through them last year, and finally told them to forget it. Our local cable company (Knology) offers bundled cable, local phone & broadband (1.5 Mbps). We have been very pleased with it.
Nominated for the Understatement of the Day.
didn't know about this-been using another
gee AT&T in failed business deal-- Wireless, home phones, internet what else can they try -VOP yes but they will make as much with that as they did with MPlan. not much difference in their business skills and those in the soviet union- we need a monopoly or else we fail. /rant off
Might as well. They sold off their Broadband division, sold off their Cable division, sold off their Wireless division...might as well go for the quadfecta, and get out of business entirely. That way, they can go after the Real Estate and Mutual Fund business...it'll be all they have left after they have no customers, just land and money.
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