AT&T phones and plans start disappearing from 3rd party retailers like Wirefly and LetsTalk

Wirefly's CEO has sent a letter stating that, beginning in March, the 3rd party retailer will stop offering AT&T's products and services.

The same goes for LetsTalk, another big cell phone retailer, which issued a similar note that it will no longer offer AT&T phones and plans from March 8th onwards. Given its strong affiliation with Walmart Wireless, we wouldn't be surprised if deals like $129.99 for the just-released Motorola ATRIX 4G will be no more (it runs till Thursday). The LetsTalk letter reads:

"Effective March 8th, 2011, LetsTalk as well as other web indirect agents [...], will no longer be able to offer AT&T Wireless as a carrier option to our customers.  The primary reasons given for this change in AT&T’s business strategy were centered around AT&T cost savings and retrenchment."

It is probably precisely these huge discounts the carrier was giving to 3rd party retailers that forced it to withdraw from the "race to the bottom" game. Amazon Wireless still hasn't announced if it will stop carrying AT&T handsets like the others, so we will keep an eye on that to gauge if this is an attempt to work with only one big retailer, or a quest to ditch them altogether.

via BGR