BellSouth now AT&T - what it means for our cities

[digital_sandlapper]

Now that BellSouth is once again part of "Ma Bell", will we be seeing mass closings of BellSouth facilities in our biggest cities (or small ones)?

BellSouth/Southern Bell was based in Atlanta, with major offices in cities across our area, but now is just going to be integrated into AT&T based in Texas. Layoffs/closings of major office buildings can almost certainly be expected.

Has anyone heard anything?

[Captain Worley]

I heard that as a result if this, if you've never had BellSouth or AT&T DSL, you can get it for 10 bucks a month for 30 months. I'm down for that, but can't find any info on how to sign up. I'm still on dil up and DSL would be nice.

I really don't think you'll see many closings/consolidation, but I really didn't think they'd tear them apart back in 84.

[krazeeboi]

I moved this to the general South Carolina forum since it's about what the merger may mean for all our cities.

[Firefox]

My dad works for BellSOUTH and my mom at the BellSOUTH Fleet Operations Center in downtown Florence. At this time no jobs are expected to be affected on the general employee level. Most of the jobs lost will be in ATL with evething moving to San An, everything that is for Bellsouth in South Carolina will be atleased turned into regional operational centers for at&t, example Florence BellSOUTH Fleet Operations Center will become the at&t Southeast Fleet Operations Center, (FOC) Columbia will still be the Admin offices for the South Carolina District of at&t as well as the Southeastern Telecommucations Bussiness Office (STBO).

[Spartan]

Yeah my thought was that it would be mainly at the administrative level. It seems to me that AT&T would still need the employees and infrastructure that Bell has invested in.

[scoop]

If your town had both AT&T and BellSouth offices, then there probably will be some job cuts. It is a good thing that SC doesn't have any very large AT&T offices.

[Spartan]

True. I think every city in SC has a bell south building though....

[Firefox]

Most of the old MA' Bell office building and switching services not bought by bellsouth were sold to local telephone companys like FTC, HTC, Verzion(then GTE), the only cities in SC with Bellsouth Offices where Greenville, Columbia, Charleston, and Florence. Some minor cuts are expected in Charleston and moderate cuts in cities Greenville, Most at&t offices will be mergerd with bellsouth jobs because of Bellsouth being a major player in the southeast, and older employees will be give a given a retirement packages.

[Spartan]

Spartanburg has a bellsouth building, regarless of whether or not it is being used for that purpose anymore.