Gazoo Notes: US corporate usually believes in phrase 'monkey see, monkey do'. If one starts, others will have to follow to compete for profit or for consumer patronage. If this continues, Americans will win and Indians will be the losers in the long run
August 30, 2011, 11:45 pm AT&T Plans to Bring Back Jobs Sent Abroad
By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg NewsRandall Stephenson, AT&Ts chief, at a House hearing in May. He hopes to allay some concerns.
AT&T, its $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA under pressure from multiple fronts, is now seeking to promote one benefit of the blockbuster deal: jobs.
The company plans to announce on Wednesday that it will bring back 5,000 call-center jobs that were outsourced abroad. AT&T also plans to commit to maintaining its and T-Mobiles more than 25,000 call-center jobs in the United States.
AT&Ts move which the company describes as one of the biggest job repatriations since the financial crisis is meant in part to assuage critical lawmakers fears of possible job cuts. In a letter to the two federal regulators reviewing the deal, Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, wrote that it is fair to assume that layoffs constitute a substantial portion of the deals promised cost savings.
Other politicians, including Representatives Ed Markey of Massachusetts and John Conyers of Michigan, have also expressed unease over the proposed mergers effect on jobs.
Does this shore up an issue that people have? Randall Stephenson, AT&Ts chief executive, said in an interview on Tuesday. Sure, I hope it does.
Among the chief attractions of mergers is cutting costs, and AT&T has forecast roughly $3 billion a year in savings. The telecommunications giant has said that it plans to create jobs by building out the combined companys next-generation wireless network, an effort that is expected to cost more than $8 billion, though it is also expected to shutter hundreds of retail stores and other back-office positions.
But Mr. Stephenson said that as AT&T was reviewing its and T-Mobiles businesses, creating jobs in the United States became a way to create good will. The company had about 265,410 employees as of Jan. 31. T-Mobile, now a unit of Deutsche Telekom, employs about 42,000 in the United States.
As I sit here and watch the news over the last month, I cant help but ask, What else can we do? he said. This sends a good message to the U.S. and to the labor markets.
AT&T currently operates about 55 call centers throughout the country, while T-Mobile runs about 24. Mr. Stephenson said that his company had yet to determine where the new call-center jobs would be located. The existing call centers are in many locations around the country, including T-Mobiles headquarters in Washington and AT&Ts home in Texas, as well as in Pennsylvania and Maine.
Mr. Stephenson added that he had become comfortable that AT&T would still meet its projected cost savings despite the move.
Jobs are not the only concern on skeptics minds about AT&Ts planned mega-deal. Since it was announced in March, the proposed acquisition has taken fire from competitors like Sprint, consumer groups and federal and state lawmakers worried about combining two of the nations biggest cellphone service providers.
AT&T has its supporters, including telecommunications workers unions, technology companies like Microsoft and Facebook and 27 governors. The company has also made a big lobbying effort to drum up additional backing.
Both sides have raced to put pressure on the federal regulators scrutinizing the deal, the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. Several state regulators, including Californias public utilities commission, are also closely examining the merger.
Last month, the F.C.C. halted its review of the deal to examine AT&Ts economic models supporting the deal, though it resumed the process last week.
The company took additional criticism after a briefly unredacted submission to the F.C.C. showed that AT&T had projected spending just $3.8 billion to expand its nascent 4G wireless network nationwide, far less than the $39 billion it is spending to buy T-Mobile.
Mr. Stephenson countered that expanding its network without T-Mobiles customer base, spectrum and cellular towers had no business case.
He added that he still expected the deal to receive approval by the end of the first quarter next year.
Nothing has transpired to date that would make me think that will change, he said.
August 30, 2011, 11:45 pm AT&T Plans to Bring Back Jobs Sent Abroad
By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED
AT&T, its $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA under pressure from multiple fronts, is now seeking to promote one benefit of the blockbuster deal: jobs.
The company plans to announce on Wednesday that it will bring back 5,000 call-center jobs that were outsourced abroad. AT&T also plans to commit to maintaining its and T-Mobiles more than 25,000 call-center jobs in the United States.
AT&Ts move which the company describes as one of the biggest job repatriations since the financial crisis is meant in part to assuage critical lawmakers fears of possible job cuts. In a letter to the two federal regulators reviewing the deal, Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, wrote that it is fair to assume that layoffs constitute a substantial portion of the deals promised cost savings.
Other politicians, including Representatives Ed Markey of Massachusetts and John Conyers of Michigan, have also expressed unease over the proposed mergers effect on jobs.
Does this shore up an issue that people have? Randall Stephenson, AT&Ts chief executive, said in an interview on Tuesday. Sure, I hope it does.
Among the chief attractions of mergers is cutting costs, and AT&T has forecast roughly $3 billion a year in savings. The telecommunications giant has said that it plans to create jobs by building out the combined companys next-generation wireless network, an effort that is expected to cost more than $8 billion, though it is also expected to shutter hundreds of retail stores and other back-office positions.
But Mr. Stephenson said that as AT&T was reviewing its and T-Mobiles businesses, creating jobs in the United States became a way to create good will. The company had about 265,410 employees as of Jan. 31. T-Mobile, now a unit of Deutsche Telekom, employs about 42,000 in the United States.
As I sit here and watch the news over the last month, I cant help but ask, What else can we do? he said. This sends a good message to the U.S. and to the labor markets.
AT&T currently operates about 55 call centers throughout the country, while T-Mobile runs about 24. Mr. Stephenson said that his company had yet to determine where the new call-center jobs would be located. The existing call centers are in many locations around the country, including T-Mobiles headquarters in Washington and AT&Ts home in Texas, as well as in Pennsylvania and Maine.
Mr. Stephenson added that he had become comfortable that AT&T would still meet its projected cost savings despite the move.
Jobs are not the only concern on skeptics minds about AT&Ts planned mega-deal. Since it was announced in March, the proposed acquisition has taken fire from competitors like Sprint, consumer groups and federal and state lawmakers worried about combining two of the nations biggest cellphone service providers.
AT&T has its supporters, including telecommunications workers unions, technology companies like Microsoft and Facebook and 27 governors. The company has also made a big lobbying effort to drum up additional backing.
Both sides have raced to put pressure on the federal regulators scrutinizing the deal, the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. Several state regulators, including Californias public utilities commission, are also closely examining the merger.
Last month, the F.C.C. halted its review of the deal to examine AT&Ts economic models supporting the deal, though it resumed the process last week.
The company took additional criticism after a briefly unredacted submission to the F.C.C. showed that AT&T had projected spending just $3.8 billion to expand its nascent 4G wireless network nationwide, far less than the $39 billion it is spending to buy T-Mobile.
Mr. Stephenson countered that expanding its network without T-Mobiles customer base, spectrum and cellular towers had no business case.
He added that he still expected the deal to receive approval by the end of the first quarter next year.
Nothing has transpired to date that would make me think that will change, he said.
