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Bedminster, NJ AT&T has announced that it will be permanently exiting the residential local and long distance marketplace.

AT&T cited recent regulatory decisions as the reason for the pullout from selling consumer services. It is not clear what, if any, recent regulatory decisions could be blamed for the company’s departure from the stand-alone long distance market, as only local UNE-P services have been affected by regulatory decisions in recent months. AT&T took the opportunity to stress that it would now focus on serving business customers, although it still plans to market consumer services based upon VOIP technology.

AT&T also stressed that it would not be disconnecting existing residential customers, but would only stop accepting new orders for consumer services, and cease all associated consumer marketing. With no new calling plans being introduced, it is most likely felt that existing long distance customers will eventually leave when prices for the service are no longer competitive. A sale of the company’s existing customer base is also not out of the question, as rumors of just such a sale have been circulation in the telcom community for well over a year now. For that matter, the sale of AT&T itself as a whole has been widely speculated at. So far, none of those rumors have materialized though.