C. Michael Armstrong
Newspaper Op-Ed Publication
November 14, 2000


         Last week's  announcement of AT&T's  restructuring  caused surprise and
questions in several quarters.  It shouldn't have - especially not to people who
understand  the trends and forces of our industry.  When I arrived at AT&T three
years  ago,  we  all  realized   that  it  was  a  business  in  major  need  of
transformation.

         In the fall of 1997,  we began  defining what we were and why we had to
change. We were in the voice business;  the world was turning to data. We were a
domestic company; commerce was going global. We were long distance;  technology,
regulation,  and competition were turning long distance into a commodity. We had
an inflated cost structure; our competitors didn't.

         But makeovers don't come easy. We cut nearly $4 billion in costs out of
our core long-distance  business over the last three years. We invested billions
in new  fiber-optic  systems to increase our network's  speed and  capacity.  We
began  kicking our  addiction to  long-distance  voice and ramped up our network
services and data communications business.

         Today, data and IP services represent about a third of our revenue from
business customers.   And they're growing 20 percent a year.

         We built a network-management  and outsourcing business from the ground
up that generates more than $3 billion a year in revenue.  We turned a patchwork
of analog  wireless  cellular  systems  into a unified  digital  system that can
provide service to customers across most of the U.S.

         We bought two of the nation's largest cable TV companies. Then we began
overhauling their facilities so they could provide interactive voice, video, and
data  communications,  with better quality and customer service.  We turned them
into one of the only viable facilities-based  competitors to the local telephone
monopolies.

         Those  rebuilds  worked.  Today more than 70 percent of our systems are
digital  and  interactive.  We have nearly  900,000  high-speed  cable  Internet
customers, and more than 2.5 million digital video customers.  We've gone from a
few  thousand  cable  telephony  customers  early last year to more than 400,000
today.  And the numbers  continue to climb - we added more than 50,000 customers
just last month.

         Then last week we took another step in our transformation. We announced
plans to re-organize  AT&T into four new businesses,  each of which is already a
leader in its industry:

         AT&T Broadband - the nation's  largest cable TV and broadband  services
         business;  AT&T  Business  Services - one of the leading  providers  of
         communications  and  networking  for  businesses;  AT&T  Consumer - the
         nation's top consumer communications business; And AT&T Wireless, among
         the largest and fastest growing wireless businesses in the U.S.

         Why did we do it? Because, in the communications  industry,  technology
is moving  so fast that only the most  nimble  companies  will  survive.  In the
future,  the most  successful  companies  will be those that have mastered three
skills.

         First,  they  will be  extremely  close to their  customers.  They will
understand and satisfy their  customers'  needs, or even better,  understand and
satisfy their customers' customers' needs.

         Second,  they  will  capture  -  rather  than  be  captured  by  -  new
technologies. They will be able to deliver at the intersection of the technology
development curve and their customers' needs.

         And third,  they will move  faster  than their  competitors  in turning
their insight and knowledge into new products or services.

         In other words, they will be focused, fast, and flexible. But the truth
is that  "focused,"  "fast," and "flexible" are hard to achieve in a $65-billion
company  spread  out  across  different  businesses.   And  that's  why  we  are
restructuring.

         Each of the new AT&T businesses  will be closer to its customers.  Each
will more  quickly  anticipate  and  respond to changes  in  technology  and the
marketplace.  Each will  bring  its  customers  a new  generation  of  broadband
communications and information services.

         Each of  these  new  businesses  will  carry  the AT&T  name and  offer
"bundles" of services over their own  facilities.  And I believe they will do it
better than anyone else. In fact, they already are.

         More than 700,000 AT&T  Broadband  video  customers  also  subscribe to
other high-speed Internet access or telephony services.

         AT&T  Business  offers  innovative  solutions  through  IP,  data,  web
hosting,  network management,  and voice services to nearly 6 million businesses
worldwide.  And more than 6.5 million customers have signed up for a combination
of wireless local, long-distance, and roaming services in bundled pricing plans.
That's bundling.

         AT&T has been an American icon for over a century, delivering a service
and an image that were part of our lives, our families,  and our society. But it
can no  longer  be  what  it  used  to be.  AT&T  had to  change  - from a voice
long-distance  company  to  four  communications   businesses  offering  bundled
services, at any distance, over state-of-the-art technology.

         Yet  even  in  the  face  of  churning  technology,  deregulation,  and
competition,  we will ensure that AT&T will be more than an American memory.  It
will be a vital part of our families' and our  country's  future.  A future that
the 160,000 people of AT&T are determined to deliver.

                                      * * *