Job cuts at Orange County’s biggest telecommunications company—AT&T Inc.—dragged down local employment among the top providers of phone and other services, which otherwise faired OK.
The 20 biggest telecommunications companies here posted a 5% decline in local workers from a year earlier to 11,372 people, according to this week’s Business Journal
list.
Without AT&T, employment at the other companies on the list was down 2.6% at 7,072 people.
The telecom list is a bit of a mixed bag.
It includes companies that provide phone, wireless, Internet and digital TV services along with those that make related devices for phone and wireless networks.
Some of the companies on the list sell mainly to businesses, while others are big consumer names.
Of the group, three companies—No. 5 Time Warner Cable Inc., No. 7 Powerwave Technologies Inc. and No. 10 TW Telecom Inc.—reported higher employment. Four companies saw declines, six were flat and six were Business Journal estimates.
No. 1 AT&T, which has corporate operations and retail stores around the county, saw the biggest decline by worker count, losing more than 400 employees in the past year.
AT&T now has about 4,300 workers here, down 9% from a year earlier.
This is the second consecutive year of job declines in OC for AT&T.
The company, which is known for providing phone service to individuals and businesses, did some major restructuring this year.
In December it said it planned to cut some 12,000 jobs, or 4% of its total workforce.
“We are constantly adjusting our headcount, primarily to get more employees into our growth areas,” spokeswoman Katie Keating said. “While AT&T has reduced some jobs in some areas, it continues to add jobs in other parts of the business—such as wireless, video and broadband—to meet customer demand.”
AT&T has 25 stores in OC, where it does customer service and sells wireless and home phone and broadband services.
Its latest push is to sell low-cost netbooks bundled with monthly data plans for broadband and wireless Internet access.
It’s offering slim, lightweight netbooks by Acer Inc., Dell Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. for about $200, after rebates, with a two-year data plan that ranges from $40 to $60 per month.
“Netbooks are being marketed as part of our back-to-school promotions,” said Andy Shibley, vice president and general manager for the greater Los Angeles area. “People are getting them to go to college, too, because they are half the size of a laptop.”
Newcomer
Rankings among the top 10 entries on the list largely stayed the same from last year, with only one newcomer: No. 10 TW Telecom.
The list, as always, is a work in progress.
The Colorado-based provider of phone service for businesses has 92 workers here.
The company is a Time Warner Inc. spinoff that still uses the initials from its former parent’s name.
It got the name from a 1993 joint venture of Time Warner Cable and U.S. West Inc., one of the seven Baby Bells that were spawned by the breakup of the original AT&T in 1983. U.S. West later became Qwest Communica-tions International Inc.
Time Warner Cable sold off the last of its stake in TW Cable in 2006.
Last year we added No. 7 Santa Ana-based Powerwave Technologies, a maker of gear for cell tower base stations.
Powerwave, which has 291 workers here, makes and installs antennas, filters and power amplifiers that boost signals on wireless networks. Their employee count is up 29% from a year earlier.
Earlier this year Powerwave opened a 40,000-square-foot office in Hyderabad, India, that’s set to serve customers in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The office has roughly 300 workers in sales, marketing, engineering and customer service.
The Business Journal estimates that No. 2 Verizon Communications Inc., which has an office in Huntington Beach and stores around the county, cut 100 jobs locally for a total of 2,700 workers.
Last year, Verizon bought Alltel Communi-cations LLC in a deal valued at $28 billion.
The deal didn’t change much locally since Alltel didn’t have substantial operations in Southern California, according to Verizon spokesman Ken Muche.
Verizon has been pushing its new “friends and family” service to customers, a promotion that Altell was known for.
“That has been very successful for us and has been one of our key growth drivers,” Muche said.
Boost Mobile LLC, the Irvine-based unit of No. 3 Sprint Nextel Corp., has stayed fairly flat with 241 workers here, down from 245 last year.
Boost markets prepaid cell phones and bills itself as the “youth lifestyle brand” of Sprint.
The company has focused on opening stores in other parts of the U.S. as it continues its marketing push for a flat-rate unlimited monthly service.
Things could change for Boost after its parent Sprint wraps up its acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA Inc., which it agreed to buy for $483 million in July.
The deal is set to expand Sprint’s market share in the prepaid segment of the wireless industry, which has gotten a boost as consumers keep a close watch on their spending.
Sprint’s prepaid business is set to be headed by Dan Schulman, current Virgin Mobile USA chief executive, who will report to Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse.
Matt Carter, who joined Boost last year from Sprint, will continue to head the Irvine operations and is set to report to Schulman.
It’s unclear how the deal, expected to close in the current quarter, will play out at Boost.
“It’s still an unknown,” said Sarah Reeves, human resources officer at Boost. “We are still considering Virgin a competitor until it makes it through all the regulatory requirements to close the deal.”
Time Warner
No. 5 Time Warner Cable, which has operations in Anaheim, added to its ranks locally as it consolidated three Los Angeles-based divisions.
The company has around 700 workers here.
“Some positions throughout our region were shifted to other offices in Orange County,” said spokesman Darryl Ryan, who’s based out of El Segundo. “This shift has allowed us to simplify our operational structure and improve the customer experience.”
No. 17 Ascom Inc., a Lake Forest-based unit of Switzerland’s Ascom Holding AG that makes and services wireless testing gear, used to be part of Lake Forest’s Comarco Inc.
Last year Comarco sold the division to Ascom for $13 million.
Before that, Comarco sold off its business making and servicing emergency roadside call boxes to Case Systems LLC.
What’s left of Comarco is a business that designs and markets slim power adapters that charge notebook computers, digital cameras, cell phones and other mobile gear.
The move pushed Comarco off the list and put Ascom in its place, with about 54 workers here.
