NEW YORK (AP) -- AT&T Corp. closed out another rough year with a strong fourth quarter driven by aggressive cost-cutting and restructuring efforts, but the telephone company issued a dour forecast for the year ahead.
Earnings for the final three months of 2004 nearly doubled to $625 million, or 78 cents per share. In the same period in 2003, AT&T earned $340 million, 43 cents per share.
More than half of the latest profit came from a tax benefit related to last fall's huge writedown in the value of AT&T's long-distance phone network.
That network became a far less valuable asset after a series of regulatory defeats which prompted AT&T to halt all marketing and customer retention efforts for traditional local and long-distance phone service.
As a result of that retreat, the consumer customer base fell sharply again in the fourth quarter, sliding by about 2 million to a year-end total of 24 million.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
