Southwestern Bell, one of the so called ''baby bells'' formed as a result of that breakup bought out the original AT&T, its parent company, in 2005 and renamed itself AT&T. The American Telephone & Telegraph Corporation continues to exist as a subsidiary of the newly reconstituted AT&T.
With the decline in wired communication, AT&T has shown itself to be a technologically nimble company and has focused for the last several years on providing wireless communication as well as high speed internet services. In 2008, AT&T got out of the pay phone business and removed its 65,000 remaining pay phones. As of now, Verizon is the only one of the ''baby bells'' that continues to operate in the pay phone market. As part of the transition to mobile communications, AT&T has made several high profile acquisitions including Cellular One, Centennial, and Wayport. Today, AT&T is a major player in the high speed internet market, the cellular phone business, and is the largest provider of wi-fi hotspots in the United States.
AT&T has taken an active role in American politics and is the second largest donor to political campaigns in the country. The company focuses its political muscle on the question of which businesses win the right to profit from broadband internet distribution. The company has also run afoul of privacy advocates and has been accused by the Electronic Freedom Foundation of granting access to the NSA to monitor phone and internet communications without a warrant, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the First and Fourth Amendments of the US Constitution. The case, Hepting v. AT&T, was dismissed by the 9th Circuit in 2009.
AT&T employs just shy of 300,000 people. The company describes itself as ''Ridiculously innovative for 134 years'' and hires people for positions ranging from retail sales to engineering, along with the usual corporate administrative roles. Currently on Hound there are 1,064 open positions with AT&T. Since Hound uses sophisticated software to cull jobs straight from the internet and never charges employers to list open positions, you will find more jobs here than any other job board.
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