Network Guru Wonders Whether Split Is Enough to Turn AT&T Around

Now that AT&T (T Quote) has reportedly come to terms with its fate, a four-way breakup, it's a good time to chat with networking visionary David Isenberg, of isen.com. After 12 years with Telephone as lab geek cum in-house provocateur, Isenberg overstepped his bounds and was shown the door in 1997.

His crime? Confronting Ma Bell with what now appears quite obvious. In his notorious essay The Rise of the Stupid Network, Isenberg wrote that AT&T had engineered itself into obsolescence and that the rise of the Internet would quickly reduce its empire to rubble.

In a conversation with TheStreet.com's Scott Moritz, Isenberg offers his thoughts on his old firm and a prescription for its survival. Isenberg, a longtime advocate of a breakup of the old phone giant, says AT&T is just now realizing the world has changed and that its adjustments may well be too late.

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