Shakeup planned at telecommunications giant

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Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2000 | 11 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK -- The board of AT&T, the nation's largest communications company, approved a plan late Monday to split up the company, the New York Times reported.

People close to the company said AT&T intends to spin off the company's cable television business and wireless units as separate companies over the next 12 to 24 months.

The company also plans to create a new stock to track AT&T's consumer long-distance division, which would operate as a separate retail unit. The remaining core of AT&T would control most of the company's network and oversee the unit that serves business customers.

The historic 1984 breakup created seven local Bell phone companies while leaving AT&T with the long-distance business. In 1996 it shed its NCR computer business and its equipment unit Lucent Technologies. Coincidently, Lucent announced Monday that it had fired its chairman, Richard A. McGinn.