AT&T, the US telecommunications group, on Thursday said it will take a restructuring charge of about $1.1bn in the third quarter mainly to cover the cost of about 7,000 job cuts and revalue downward its assets by $11.4bn. The move follows its decision to stop marketing traditional consumer telephone services.

The company, which is struggling to reposition itself as a business communications service provider amid the sweeping changes in the US telecoms industry, said it now expected to significantly exceed its previously estimated workforce-reduction target of 8 per cent in 2004.