AT&T defends job-creation claims, says ‘spillover’ from merger will help economy

AT&T defended its claim that its proposed merger with T-Mobile will create "thousands" of jobs in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

AT&T committed to not cut any U.S. call center jobs if the merger is approved and pledged to bring 5,000 call center jobs back to the U.S. from other countries. AT&T promised to extend a job offer to all "non-management" T-Mobile employees. "T-Mobile non-management employees whose job functions are no longer required because of the merger will be offered another position in the combined company," AT&T wrote. The most significant job creation will come from the economic "spillover effects" that will result from AT&T's investment in its high-speed wireless network, the company said. The company also argued that T-Mobile is a struggling company that might need to purge jobs soon if it is not allowed to merge with AT&T. Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group that opposes the deal, slammed AT&T for not providing enough details about the merger's impact on jobs. "The company is spending millions of dollars on TV ads claiming that its takeover of T-Mobile will create 96,000 jobs, but it can’t be bothered to tell the public how those jobs will be created," Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, said. “Instead, it continues to file more information under confidentiality restrictions that do nothing to answer the question how AT&T will reverse its trend of cutting 10,000 jobs per year if the takeover goes through.” AT&T says it only redacted confidential company data.