AT&T Makes Cross-State Move

Shifts headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas.

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/27/2008 4:28:00 PM

Telco AT&T is moving its corporate headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas, which will involve about 700 of the company's nearly 6,000 San Antonio-based employees.

AT&T -- which is delivering television content both through its U-verse TV Internet-protocol-TV service and through its wireless business -- said the move will give it better access to customers and operations, as the Dallas-Fort Worth international airport offers daily nonstop service to 35 international and 133 U.S. destinations.

The move will also put AT&T near other technology suppliers and telecom companies that have a major presence in Dallas, including Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Nokia, Nortel, RIM and Samsung.

"We're a growing global company with customers and operations around the world," AT&T chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson said in a statement. "Being headquartered in Dallas will benefit our long-term growth prospects and human-resources needs and our ability to operate more efficiently, better serve customers and expand the business in the future.”

The move will begin over the next month and is expected to be completed by year-end. AT&T’s Telecom Operations group -- which serves residential and regional business customers in 22 states -- will remain in San Antonio. Atlanta will continue to be the headquarters for AT&T's Mobility group, New Jersey will continue to be the headquarters for the company's Global Business Services group and AT&T Labs and St. Louis will continue as the base for the company's Directory operations.

"San Antonio is a great city with much to offer and it's been good for AT&T as we've grown from primarily a five-state local phone company to the world's largest telecom company," Stephenson added. "San Antonio will continue to be a major operations and employment center for us."

AT&T said that after the move, it will still have about 1,700 more employees in San Antonio than before it relocated its corporate headquarters to the city from St. Louis in 1992.