ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030068
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
Deep in the announcement that AT&T Corp. would make its largest job cut ever, the company signaled an important strategic change in its computer on-line services for consumers and businesses.
AT&T plans to abandon the proprietary software required to use its on-line services. They are the Imagination Network, a network that lets people play computer games across the country; PersonalLink, which sends electronic mail to numerous computerized devices; and Interchange, a traditional on-line system with news, e-mail and other features.
Instead, AT&T will reshape its on-line services around the technical standards of the Internet, chiefly giving them so-called ``hypertext'' links in the manner that information is connected on the World Wide Web.
In announcing its plan to eliminate 40,000 jobs and make other changes before its breakup later this year, AT&T said a small part of the $4 billion after-tax restructuring charge would cover products being written off or revalued. It cited the proprietary on-line software as one of the products.
Other on-line services, notably Prodigy, Apple Computer Inc.'s eWorld and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, also are changing to embrace Internet design and software standards.
Gartner Group, a technology advisory company that provides an information service on AT&T's Interchange, said it would change to be accessible on both the Internet and Interchange.
Jonathan Yarmis, a Gartner Group vice president, said the technological advantage Interchange had in the graphical presentation of data may soon be surpassed by one of the hundreds of companies working on Internet-related software.
``It's just so clear that the pace of development for the Internet is something virtually impossible for one party to keep up with,'' Yarmis said.
LENGTH: Short : 42 linesby CNB