The largest telecommunications companies with operations in Orange County combined for a slight drop in employment here over the past 12 months as consolidation and restructuring shifted some jobs out of the county and eliminated others.
The 28 biggest providers of phone, Internet, data services and related equipment cut local employment 2.1% to 10,342 people, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
It’s the fifth decline in a row for companies appearing on the annual list.
The last job gains were in 2006, when the sector grew 4%.
The list is made up of a broad group of companies—from traditional phone and wireless carriers to high-speed Internet and digital TV providers as well as equipment makers and network service providers.
Nine companies on the list added jobs while five saw employment declines. Two were flat, and seven were Business Journal estimates. Five companies did not provide enough information for comparison.
No. 1 Dallas-based AT&T Inc., which has its regional management team in Cerritos and operations in Anaheim and elsewhere in the county, saw its jobs count remain unchanged at 3,500.
The company provides commercial and residential phone services and also sells wireless and digital TV services.
Growing demand for smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices has been offset by the continuing slide of landline business, which has been in gradual decline across the industry the last decade, according to Andy Shibley, AT&T’s vice president and general manager of the Southern California region.
The company’s U-verse offering, which bundles digital TV, Internet and phone, is starting to gain traction among consumers, according to Shibley.
The service is available in Garden Grove, Fullerton, Yorba Linda, Costa Mesa, Santa Ana, Fountain Valley, Villa Park, Cerritos, Brea and Mission Viejo.
AT&T also is expected to launch the highly touted 4G network in the county soon. It promises to boost download speeds and allow users to do more with their smart phones.
No. 2 New York-based Verizon Communi-cations Inc., which provides phone service to coastal OC and also sells wireless and digital TV services, has about 2,800 local workers, estimated flat from a year ago.
For the past few years, Verizon, which employs more than 200,000 people companywide, has been cutting thousands of jobs across the country.
The company’s local workers are spread among wireless stores, a customer service center and a phone service hub in Huntington Beach.
Verizon is seen as the early leader in the 4G race here and continues to upgrade its 3G network as well.
The company is seeing big gains in its business-to-business and machine-to-machine market segments as new electronic products such as scanners and tracking devices use Verizon technology.
Cox Communications
No. 3 Atlanta-based Cox Communications Inc. employs about 950 people in the county, mostly in Rancho Santa Margarita. That number is down more than 13% from a year ago.
A restructuring of Cox’s operations in California led to the biggest decline by headcount of any company on the list.
In February Cox, which provides cable TV, Internet, landline and wireless services, consolidated its Orange County and San Diego divisions in an effort to boost efficiencies, maximize resources and streamline operations, according to spokesperson Ceanne Guerra.
The company is seeing gains in its commercial business as demand for voice, Internet and video increases. The commercial segment includes companies and local governments as well as military and nonprofit customers.
“Our Cox business is a huge growth engine for us,” Guerra said.
Sprint
No. 5 Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint Nextel Corp. saw local employment drop 12.6% to 499 employees, a lingering effect of restructuring its operation in Irvine.
Sprint cut jobs after it acquired prepaid cell phone operator Virgin Mobile USA Inc. for $483 million in November 2009. It folded Virgin into its own prepaid wireless business, Irvine-based Boost Mobile LLC, which now goes by Sprint Prepaid Group.
Sprint no longer breaks out employment figures for the group.
According to spokesperson Heather Wong, many employees who were once part of business units in the county have joined the parent company.
Companywide, Sprint has cut more than 10,000 jobs since late 2008.
Sprint is focused on building its retail operations here and throughout the country.
The company plans to open outlets in Garden Grove and Lake Forest later this year, moves expected to add 50 to 100 more employees, according to Wong.
“We’ll continue that expansion in 2012,” she said.
The employment drops among major wireless carriers came even as carriers continued to invest heavily in Orange County’s communications infrastructure.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in additional upgrades have been earmarked for the county as the explosion of video and streaming data over mobile phones, tablets and other devices strains storage capacity.
Download the 2011 OC’s LARGEST TELECOMMUNICATIONS COS list (pdf)
