But the withdrawal also has produced significant savings on marketing costs, which totaled $700 million per year before AT&T pulled the plug.
New advertising costs for the Internet-based phone service AT&T launched last March amount to small fraction of the old marketing budget. AT&T declined again Thursday to offer any tally of how many consumers and businesses have signed up for the new service, though executives said that should not be taken as a sign of poor performance.
The latest quarter also reflected cost savings from the elimination of more than 14,000 jobs, or nearly a quarter of the company's work force, during the year.
The final tally of job cuts exceeded AT&T's prior estimate in October that the work force would shrink by ``more than 20 percent.''
``I would expect further headcount reductions in 2005,'' but not nearly as many as those made in 2004, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Horton said in a conference call after the report.
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