Thursday, September 1, 2011

AT&T and T-Mobile Merger Eyes More Job Opportunities in the US



AT&T and T-Mobile merger aims to open more job opportunities particularly call center jobs to the United States that are currently outsourced to other countries like India and Philippines.



Furthermore, AT&T and T-Mobile merger will prevent any job losses for U.S.-based call center workers after 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," AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement. "This merger and today's commitment are good for our employees, our customers, and our country."



Meanwhile, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said the merger which will result to more than 5,000 new jobs is what needed in today's struggling economy.



"These jobs will provide quality wages and benefits and good working conditions for U.S. workers - exactly what's needed to help turn around our struggling economy," Trumka said. "Instead of sitting on more than $2 trillion in assets and sending jobs overseas while millions of Americans are out of work, working people are looking for U.S. employers to follow AT&T's lead. If more employers took this kind of action, we could begin to move our economy forward and strengthen the middle class."



The Communications Workers of America, a union partly made up of employees in the wireless business, including 160,000 AT&T workers, also responded favorably to the announcement, saying that AT&T's decision to "bring back quality jobs" is "big news."



AT&T announced its plans to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom earlier this year. If the deal is approved by both the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, AT&T will pay $39 billion to merge with T-Mobile USA. Which means, the combined company will eaten all other competitors alive with about 130 million subscribers around the U.S.



But debate rages over whether or not AT&T should be allowed to acquire T-Mobile USA surfaced. Those who stand against the deal say that the merger would stifle innovation in the mobile market and drastically reduce competition, thus hurting consumers.



"The merger will likely tend to substantially lessen competition, lead to consumers paying high prices with fewer choices, as well as lessen the innovation that has been the keystone of this industry in the last decade," Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), one of the more outspoken critics of the deal, wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice and FCC last month.



And just after this story was posted by CNET News, the Department of Justice said that it has gone to court in Washington, D.C., in an effort to block the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, saying the deal would reduce competition and violate U.S. antitrust laws.



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