AT&T Corp. is planning to scale back its consumer phone business even further, following last week's announcement it would stop adding residential customers in some markets, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The largest U.S. long-distance phone company has begun notifying companies that provide it with marketing services such as call centers that it will not be needing them or will be sharply reducing the services it buys, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Accenture Ltd. is one of the outsourcing vendors that has been informed of a cutback, according to the Journal.
Last week AT&T said it would stop adding new residential customers in seven states after a court threw out regulations giving it cheap access to the dominant local telephone networks. The company also cut its earnings and sales guidance for 2004.
Representatives from AT&T and Accenture were not immediately available for comment on the report.