Delta Air Lines and AT&T are back together again in a services relationship, albeit one that's far narrower and shorter than the 10-year, $2.8 billion outsourcing contract and joint venture they cut short in 1996, when AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies and NCR Corp.

AT&T said today that it has been awarded a three-year multimillion-dollar contract for integrated voice and data services for Delta in the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. AT&T will use its Virtual Telecommunications Network Service portfolio offering to deliver voice, wireless, frame relay, dedicated digital private line, and teleconferencing services to Delta.

Delta expects the AT&T services to provide the basis for an integrated voice, data, and video network on a global basis, delivering cost savings and operational efficiencies. The previous relationship, awarded in 1994, was a comprehensive system-management and application development contract with expectations for developing software which could be commercialized for the transportation industry.