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AT&T Q4 Earnings Rise Despite Lower Revenue: Page 3 of 5

Some of this year's cuts will be made by closing customer call-in centers as AT&T continues to resize its operations for the shrinking consumer operation - once a $25 billion a year business with 60 million customers.

The savings on labor and marketing helped offset another dismal quarter on the revenue side.

Fourth-quarter sales totaled $7.27 billion, down 10.2 percent from the year-ago tally of $8.10 billion as fierce price competition and last year's unexpected regulatory changes continued to erode the company's telephone and data businesses.

In the latest quarter, the consumer services unit saw revenues decline 17.9 percent to $1.8 billion. The business services division generated $5.45 billion of the revenues, down 7.4 percent from a year earlier.

Some of the fourth-quarter results exceeded Wall Street estimates, but AT&T's shares fell 44 cents, or 2.4 percent, to close at $18.07 in Thursday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.