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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - AT&T said Monday it had inked a deal with discount department store chain Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to distribute over $100 million worth of its prepaid cards through Wal-Mart properties over the next year.
The deal has AT&T (T ) replacing MCI WorldCom Inc. (WCOM ), which formerly held the Wal-Mart contract.
AT&T said the prepaid cards will be available beginning Monday at 2,400 Wal-Mart (WMT ) stores nationwide and at the department store's 450 Sam's Club office-supply warehouses.
Wal-Mart stores will feature 30, 60, 120 and 250-minute cards. Sam's Clubs will initially offer 160 and 600 minute cards, as well as packages with multiple cards.
The agreement more than triples the number of retail outlets carrying AT&T cards since this time last year. The prepaid cards are also available in 7-Eleven stores, Red Roof Inns, Barnes & Noble college bookstores and other locations.
AT&T also signed a three-year, $78-million contract extension to provide Wal-Mart with domestic and international voice services, plus ATM and frame-relay data services.
As part of this agreement, AT&T will provide local telephone service to Wal-Mart's 3,100 retail and business locations through AT&T Digital Link. Wal-Mart also purchases wireless services from AT&T and uses AT&T WorldNet Managed Internet Service to for online service and transaction capabilities.
AT&T, which also announced a cable telephony venture with Time Warner (TWX ), was up 2-7/8 to 92-5/8 in early Monday trading. Wal-Mart was down 5/8 to 85-3/8.
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