REDMOND, Wash.-AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said it has signed agreement with Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Sprint PCS detailing how they will port customers’ phone numbers once the first phase of local number portability is implemented on Nov. 24. AT&T Wireless said the agreements address operational details including troubleshooting procedures and business rules that carriers will follow during the porting process.
AT&T Wireless also reported in its quarterly 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to cut roughly 1,900 jobs as a result of its ongoing restructuring plans that include moving most of its operations to its Washington and northern New Jersey-area headquarters. The carrier said a majority of the job cuts would be involuntary, but that a third are expected to be the result of employees declining the opportunity to relocate.
Approximately 800 positions were eliminated as of Sept. 30 as part of its Project Pinnacle restructuring, which AT&T Wireless said was designed to improve operating efficiency and reach a goal of industry-leading margins in 2005, and that the remaining job cuts were expected by the end of the year.