AT&T Consolidates Management Layers

The customer care teams of AT&T Business and AT&T Consumer are being combined into a new organization, and billing operations are being consolidated under the Customer Service organization, the company said. Product management segments--including voice, data, IP and managed services--are being combined into a single organization as well.

Plans also call for AT&T's retail channels to be centralized into one unit and sales organization, which will be led by Chris Rooney, former president of AT&T government solutions. He replaces Ken Sichau, who is retiring, according to the company.

In addition, Reed Harrison, former network engineering, maintenance and field operations manager of AT&T's local, long-distance and global networks and products, will head Network Engineering and Operations and replace Frank Ianna, who's also retiring.

AT&T said that reducing management layers will enable the company's leadership to make quicker decisions based on customer needs.