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AT&T, the largest phone company in the U.S., announced Thursday that it will cut about 12,000 jobs, or roughly 4 percent of its total workforce, starting this month and through next year. AT&T also announced it would slash capital spending, but it won’t have specific figures ready until it releases its fourth-quarter financial results late next month.
Telecom Italia will cut an additional 4,000 jobs by 2011 as it concentrates on core growth markets in Italy and Brazil to confront the deteriorating economic situation, CEO Franco Bernabe said Wednesday. The 4,000 job cuts are in addition to 5,000 announced in June, and will reduce Telecom Italia’s workforce by 14 percent.
AT&T, the country’s largest Internet service provider, is testing the idea of limiting the amount of data that subscribers can use each month. AT&T will initially apply the limits in Reno, Nev., and see about extending the practice elsewhere. Increasingly, Internet providers across the country are placing such limits on the amount of data users can upload and download each month.
Companies hoping to dial up international business with China may have yet another reason to think twice about privacy concerns, following new revelations that the Communist country has been spying on Skype-based phone calls and text messages. Citizen Lab released a report this week detailing flaws within TOM-Skype.
The European Parliament called Wednesday for a new independent telecom regulator group to help open up competition for Internet and phone services across Europe. But their choice of a group of national telecom agencies does not go as far as the European Commission’s demand for a tough EU-wide body to weaken the grip many former state-owned telecom monopolies have in EU nations.