AT&T Says Has Not Reached Potential In Internet
Monday July 27 10:13 AM EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T has tapped British Telecommunications to strengthen its
international strategy, but the telecom giant still needs to bolster its presence in the Internet
market, AT&T Chairman C. Michael Armstrong said.
"I don't think we've filled our potential in Internet," Armstrong said in an interview after
announcing earlier in the day a $10 billion joint venture with BT to provide voice and data
services to multinational companies.
Armstrong said AT&T's Internet plans hadn't been finalized, but he aimed to improve operations
across the board, from the company's Internet transport business, to its Intranet and extranet
services for business, to the consumer dial-up Internet access business. [Looks like a nice boost in ASND purchases.]
AT&T's consumer dial-up business, WorldNet, "is not participating to the degree that (it should)
for the fastest- growing application in the consumer market," Armstrong said.
AT&T's WorldNet has only a fraction of industry leader America Online's 12 million members.
"With the competition being 13 times our size, we do not feel fully satisfied," Armstrong said,
referring to AOL.
AT&T also wants to continue to market its telephone services on the Internet.
The company has forged marketing alliances with Internet search engines such as Yahoo!, Lycos
and Infoseek.
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