AT&T to add 3,000 jobs in wireless, broadband push

AT&T said it will pump at least $17 billion into the company and add 3,000 jobs this year to support increased growth in its wireless, broadband and video service areas.

It is unclear how many of those jobs will be in Atlanta. While AT&T is based in Dallas, the company’s wireless unit, AT&T Mobility, and the bulk of its video services, under the name U-verse, are in Atlanta.

About two-thirds of the capital investment will go toward enhancing AT&T’s wireless and wired broadband networks. The company said last month it would beef up its high-speed wireless network, known as 3G, in metro Atlanta, Athens, Columbus, Dalton and Savannah.

The announcement comes three months after the telecommunications company — the nation’s largest — said it planned to cut 12,000 jobs, or 4 percent of its work force. It gave no indication whether any of the 20,000 employees in metro Atlanta would be part of those cuts.

The cuts include management and non-management jobs and will be made in many parts of the business and in nearly every geographic area, AT&T spokeswoman Dawn Benton said in December.

AT&T again said, in its announcement, that it will still cut jobs in other areas, primarily in the landline telephone side, “due to economic pressures, a more streamlined organizational structure and continued shift among residential customers from wired voice services to wireless and broadband.”