Kaplan Wants Answers on Job Creation Under AT&T/T-Mobile Deal
FCC Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan asked AT&T for more documents on whether AT&T’s buy of T-Mobile would mean a net gain of jobs in the U.S. Kaplan said in a letter dated Thursday, that the bureau asked the question in a May 27 information request. “AT&T to date has produced almost nothing in response,” Kaplan wrote (http://xrl.us/bmf3ot).
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Kaplan sought a broad response, asking for all documents on the effects of the merger domestically and internationally and projections for the next three years if the deal does not go through. Kaplan asks for detailed information on call center jobs, the biggest job category for wireless carriers, including all documents from the past five years “with respect to the location” of these jobs.
Jobs have emerged as a huge issue as regulators look more closely at the transaction. Larry Cohen, president of the Communications Workers of America, has said AT&T’s commitment to bring 5,000 call center jobs back to the U.S. was a key reason his union continues to support the deal (CD Sept 19 p1). T-Mobile has off-shored many call center jobs, he said. Kaplan’s letter asks AT&T about “this commitment and the transaction both generally and in view of AT&T’s prior non-merger-related announcements.”
AT&T, meanwhile, sent the FCC a letter responding to earlier questions raised by Public Knowledge and Free Press about whether the deal would mean job loss in the U.S. A spokesman said the company did not have a specific comment on Kaplan’s letter.
"The transaction will allow the combined company to dramatically expand network capacity, thus directly benefitting consumers by reducing dropped and blocked calls, increasing data speeds, and putting downward pressure on prices,” AT&T said. “The merger will spur billions of dollars in additional investment, create thousands of jobs, and significantly narrow the digital divide while advancing the Administration’s rural broadband objectives -- all of which will aid the nation’s economic recovery and future economic strength without the expenditure of public funds.” The letter acknowledges in a footnote that Kaplan asked for additional information from the company.
"This is a major development,” said Andrew Schwartzman, senior vice president of the Media Access Project. “The FCC has told AT&T to put up or shut up. Ever since the T-Mobile transaction was announced, we've been saying that this deal will cost jobs, not create them. This letter shows that, at the least, the commission is unconvinced, and running out of patience."
Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn said AT&T has shed 100,000 jobs over the past decade as a result of other transactions. “We commend the FCC for trying to pin down AT&T on the specious claim that jobs would result from the company’s takeover of T-Mobile,” Sohn said. “We were very pleased to see the Commission staff ask for information on the ’synergies’ that AT&T has told Wall Street would result and their effect on payroll reductions. We have said from the beginning that this transaction is a job destroyer, not a job creator."
"AT&T’s job claims have no basis in fact -- and that is readily apparent to anyone and everyone that has examined the evidence on this merger,” said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood. “All of AT&T’s wild job creation theories are based on speculation at best, and on outright falsehoods in far too many cases.”