AT&T acquired USi this past year for $300 million http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/091206_AT&T_Acquires_USinternetworking.cfm and signifcantly bolstered its ability to deliver hosted and managed application services to large enterprise and mid market companies...but what's the plan for the SMB market?
I am not personally sure if AT&T has plans to leverage their new found SaaS capabilities to target SMB markets -- but it would seem to make good sense given that their (and SBCs) traditional voice business (local and LD) is clearly under signifcant commoditization pressures
http://www.forbes.com/2003/04/24/cz_sw_0424sbc.html?partner=yahoo&referrer=
Furthermore, given their tremednous SMB assets (mainly in the form of existing billing relationships and brand power) it would seem that AT&T would be wise to leverage thier brodband network to make a serious push to deliver hosted apps to the SMB market, just like British Telecom www.btworkspace.com and www.bttradespace.com.
Time will tell if they have the focus and energy to work to evolve their broadband platfrom into the applications realm? I think they will.