By Robin Gareiss, Nemertes principal research officer and Johna Till Johnson, Nemertes president & chief research officer

July 22, 2004

The gutsy decision by AT&T(NYSE: T) today to withdraw from actively
marketing traditional consumer local and long-distance services highlights
the seismic shift that has been long underway within the telecom market.

Nemertes repeatedly has stressed the growing distinction between "bandwidth
providers," which offer commodity (and often, legacy) services and "service
providers," which specialize in ensuring effective delivery of services to
defined customer groups.

The complete Impact Analysis is available to Nemertes clients. For more information, please contact Chris Zimmerman at chris@nemertes.com