PhotonBoy
Flashlight Enthusiast
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2695813
"NEW YORK -- AT&T Corp., the nation's largest long-distance company, will stop seeking new customers for its traditional consumer long-distance service, once the bedrock of the company known as Ma Bell.
The company will continue to serve its existing residential customers but will no longer pour roughly $1 billion a year into winning new ones, AT&T said today as it reported sharply lower profits for the second quarter.
Instead, AT&T will bet its future on providing telecom and data services to business, currently 75 percent of its revenue, and selling residential customers new technologies, such as phone service over the Internet...."
I found this fact to be surprising, but not totally unexpected. The advent of the internet and VoIP has made distance for both data and voice a non-issue. I think that long distance as we know it now will complete disappear in a few years. You'll soon be able to pick up your phone and call anywhere in the world for a fixed, flat rate per month.
"NEW YORK -- AT&T Corp., the nation's largest long-distance company, will stop seeking new customers for its traditional consumer long-distance service, once the bedrock of the company known as Ma Bell.
The company will continue to serve its existing residential customers but will no longer pour roughly $1 billion a year into winning new ones, AT&T said today as it reported sharply lower profits for the second quarter.
Instead, AT&T will bet its future on providing telecom and data services to business, currently 75 percent of its revenue, and selling residential customers new technologies, such as phone service over the Internet...."
I found this fact to be surprising, but not totally unexpected. The advent of the internet and VoIP has made distance for both data and voice a non-issue. I think that long distance as we know it now will complete disappear in a few years. You'll soon be able to pick up your phone and call anywhere in the world for a fixed, flat rate per month.