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AT&T Currying Favor with Regulators by Promising U.S. Call Center Jobs

By Tracey E. Schelmetic
TMCnet Contributor

The longer this recession that the country has been mired in for going on three years now drags out, the more pressure we're starting to see on the so-called “Outsourcing Kings” to bring jobs back to U.S. shores. GE, once a proud outsourcer, has begun publicly committing that it would bring some jobs back to the U.S.

Telecom giant AT&T (News - Alert) is the latest. The company has pledged that after the closure of its proposed merger with former wireless rival T-Mobile (News - Alert) USA, it will bring back to the U.S. 5,000 call center jobs – serving its wireless customers – that are currently being filled by foreign personnel. The company says it has developed a “detailed analysis focused specifically on identifying opportunities with the T-Mobile merger to bring good-paying wireless call center jobs back to the United States.”

Plus, it makes for pretty good PR.

The company also promises that it will not cut the jobs of any T-Mobile employees who are on the payroll when the merger closes.

“At a time when many Americans are struggling and our economy faces significant challenges, we're pleased that the T-Mobile merger allows us to bring 5,000 jobs back to the United States and significantly increase our investment here,” said Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and CEO. “This merger and today's commitment are good for our employees, our customers and our country.”

The company has said it hasn't yet determined where those 5,000 U.S.-based call center jobs will be located.

In addition, AT&T says that with the integration of T-Mobile into its operations, it will expand and upgrade its infrastructure investment by more than $8 billion. According to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute that was commissioned by the Communications Workers of America, says the company, this infrastructure investment has the potential to produce up to approximately 96,000 new U.S. jobs.

AT&T says this new commitment to creating and preserving jobs does not change its previous guidance on the expected overall merger synergies. (Makes it sound like hiring Americans is somehow thought to be bad for business to the corporate community, doesn't it?)

So is AT&T hauling all these promises out to try and influence regulators to approve the merger?

Well, maybe it will work, and maybe it will win new customers with the promise of better service. The company says that all in all, after the merger and the new infrastructure investments, it will be able to offer subscribers better service, including fewer dropped and blocked calls, and faster data speeds. Not only that, the additional spectrum and other benefits resulting from the merger will enable AT&T to deliver high-speed 4G LTE (News - Alert) mobile broadband service to 97 percent of the U.S. population, or 55 million more Americans than it would without the merger.

So it's a little bit like AT&T handing wrapped boxes of expensive chocolates to federal regulators to try and woo them to the merger. Will it work? Time will tell.

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