If it is any solace, similar problems are afflicting the consumer long-distance units at WorldCom and Sprint.
Jobs will be cut in all divisions, including the wireless and long-distance units, a spokesman, Mark Bonavia, said.
With the cable unit on its way to somewhere and the wireless unit already gone, AT&T would be left with only the business and consumer long-distance units.
Frustrated by the price wars and slow growth that have come to characterize much of the long-distance telephone business, WorldCom Inc. intends to issue a new stock to track its consumer and wholesale long-distance units, people close to the company said yesterday.
A week after AT&T announced a sweeping reorganization that will break the company up into four parts, WorldCom Inc. is expected to announce a similar, if somewhat less grand, revamping today that will include issuing a stock to track its consumer and wholesale long-distance units.
Like AT&T, WorldCom's long-distance business is growing much more slowly than its other data and business services as price wars and competition from the regional Bells have turned long-distance units into a drag on the profits of otherwise growing enterprises.
AT&T added that its core consumer long-distance unit would shrink faster than expected.
The company hopes to generate steady cash from the long-distance unit, and analysts say that may prove fruitful.
Mr. Prigmore, who had headed GTE's Sprint long-distance unit, was not joining the new company after all.
Shares of Sprint FON, Sprint's main long-distance unit, rose 56 cents, or 4.79percentto to $12.26 on the news.
If the shrinking consumer long-distance unit were made separate, the remainder of the company would show faster growth.
