White flag or sound decision?

Life is full of ironies: As I visited The New York Times website for fodder for this commentary, I did a quick search for recent articles on AT & T. Alas, even on its own search, Ma Bell couldn't escape the competition; the search engine was sponsored by Sprint.

AT & T's decision in late July to cease marketing its services to the residential market spelled the end of an era. Yet was anyone surprised, especially given its earnings as of late and its announcement in late June that it would abandon efforts to attract new residential customers in seven states and evaluate its status in the rest of the country?

Outside the industry, people screamed about brands losing their luster and competition (or lack thereof, depending on which side you took) bringing down another giant. Yet inside the industry, the news was met with relative calm, other than the competitive industry groups pointing to the move as a further blow to competition. The industry knows the traditional dial tone business is going the way of the dinosaur and for the most part accepted the fact that AT & T decided to jump ship from the consumer market before the consumer market sinks the ship. The fact that it also has this nifty little service called CallVantage also may have softened the blow.

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So was it a white flag or a sound business decision? I'd love your opinion on this or anything else that's bugging you. E-mail me at sokeefe@telecommagazine.com.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Horizon House Publications, Inc.
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