AT&T To Shut CallVantage Internet Phone Service

AT&T spokesman Michael Coe said the service will be retired in phases, with the last accounts disconnected by the end of the year. The company will send several more reminders before the final shutdown.

CallVantage is being shut down because the company is focusing its efforts on other technologies, Coe said.

AT&T hasn't revealed subscriber figures for CallVantage since the end of 2004, when it had 53,000.

AT&T introduced the service in March 2004, when it was still a long-distance company. CallVantage allowed it to compete in the local-phone business as well. AT&T was later bought by SBC, the local-phone company for much of the Midwest. The combined company assumed the AT&T name.

AT&T has a new Internet-based phone service, which sends voice calls as numerous data packets just like e-mail and Web traffic for reassembly on the recipient's end. But the new service is available only in its local-phone service area and only to households that get its U-Verse Internet and TV service.