FCC SAYS AT&T HAS FAILED TO SHOW HOW T-MOBILE MERGER WILL CREATE JOBS

Rick Kaplan, chief of the Federal Communication Commission’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, sent a letter to AT&T on Thursday asking the carrier to clarify just how the proposed merger with T-Mobile USA will add jobs in the United States. “Our review of the information currently in our record suggests that AT&T’s responses on this issue remain incomplete,” Kaplan said. The FCC is giving AT&T until October 31st to address fully “all plans, analyses and reports discussing the creation or loss of jobs” if the merger is approved. AT&T must also disclose how many T-Mobile USA jobs will be eliminated and show how the merger will affect employment inside and outside of the United States during the next five years. AT&T CEO Randall L. Stephenson argued earlier this year that the proposed merger would be a “net job grower” in the United States. On August 31st, AT&T promised to bring 5,000 jobs back to the United States if the merger is approved, which was the same day the U.S. government filed a lawsuit in opposition of the deal.

AT&T PROMISES TO BRING BACK 5,000 JOBS TO US IF GOVERNMENT APPROVES T-MOBILE MERGER

AT&T said on Wednesday that it promises to bring 5,000 of its outsourced call center jobs back to the United States if its proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA is approved by the FCC. AT&T also promised that it will not layoff any AT&T or T-Mobile call center employee who is employed at the time of the merger. In addition, AT&T will invest $8 billion in its U.S. infrastructure and the Economic Policy Institute has suggested that move could provide up to 96,000 new jobs. AT&T made its announcement hours before the United States Justice Department filed a lawsuit in an attempt to block the merger. “AT&T’s elimination of T-Mobile as an independent, low- priced rival would remove a significant competitive force from the market,” the Justice Department said. AT&T responded and said that “there was no indication” from the DOJ that a lawsuit was being contemplated. “We remain confident that this merger is in the best interest of consumers and our country, and the facts will prevail in court,” AT&T Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel Wayne Watts said, noting that AT&T will continue to fight for the merger’s approval.

RIM AXES 2,000 JOBS; CHANGES MANAGERS TO HALT DECLINE

Just a month after a disgruntled employee accused RIM's managers of failing to make bold decisions, the latter have responded by boldly sacking 11 percent of their workforce. The company says it will notify affected employees in North America and some other countries this week. It also announced a number of changes to its executive team, with Thorsten Heins taking on the expanded role of COO, Product and Sales. Other personnel changes were generally confined to sales, marketing and operations, which leaves us wondering what, if anything, will change in the way RIM comes up with new products.

GEORGE HOTZ, AKA GEOHOT, HIRED BY FACEBOOK

George Hotz, the hacker better known as “geohot” has joined the team at Facebook. Hotz made a name for himself in the enthusiast community as an iPhone and iPad jailbreaker with his blackra1n tool, and he’s was also sued for jailbreaking the Sony PlayStation 3. Reportedly, Hotz joined Facebook in May and recently wrote on Facebook that the social network is “really an amazing place to work.”

NOKIA CUTTING 4,000 JOBS, MOVING 3,000 MORE IN CONTINUED RESTRUCTURING

Finnish handset giant Nokia continues its restructuring in an effort to trim overhead and return to profitability. The BBC is reporting that the company will cut 4,000 jobs worldwide and jettison an additional 3,000 positions to Accenture — the consulting company set to manage the Symbian mobile operating system going forward. ”With this new focus, we also will face reductions in our workforce,” said Nokia’s CEO, Stephen Elop. ”This is a difficult reality, and we are working closely with our employees and partners to identify long-term re-employment programmes for the talented people of Nokia.” The proposed moves are scheduled to take place sometime in 2012.

JESSE JACKSON JR. BLAMES iPAD FOR HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT

You know how ebooks are gradually taking over paper books as the most popular format for the consumption of the written word? Well, that's bad, mmkay? Publishers, librarians, and booksellers are losing their jobs and It's all entirely the iPad's fault. Forget the Kindle's millions of sales, the iPad did it. In a technophobic rant to rival all technophobic rants that have come before it, Illinois Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. accuses the iPad's popularity for the current level of unemployment in his nation, before proceeding to sculpt a rickety argument about how the First Amendment to the US Constitution is being exploited for the benefit of China. Check out the spectacle for yourself:

RUMOR: YAHOO TO LAY OFF 2,500

A rumor is making the rounds that managers at Yahoo! have been told to start deciding which staff need to go. The reason? Yahoo!’s upper management is set to cut 20% of its staff, or around 2,500 people.

Although not official yet, TechCrunch has been told this is happening from two independent sources. Yahoo! has used the common response of not commenting on rumor or speculation. If it’s going to happen it won’t be long before former Yahoo! staff start talking about it, though.

The rumor comes a few days after Google decided to give all its staff a 10% pay raise and $1,000 to spend over the holidays. Clearly they have been doing a lot better than Yahoo! for quite a while now.

We really hope this rumor isn’t true for the sake of the staff who will lose their jobs. But at the same time there’s a lot of talented people at the company who should have no problem finding alternative positions. Maybe they can use Yahoo! Hotjobs to find another employer. [Geek]

JOBS RIPS INTO GOOGLE AND RIM

Steve Jobs made an appearance on the conference call Apple held to announce their quarterly results. He ended up going on a 5-minute rant about RIM, Google, fragmentation and 7-inch tablets.  Commenting on RIM, the makers of the popular Blackberry devices, Steve had this to say: "We've now passed RIM and I don't see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future... I think it's going to be a challenge for them to create a competitive platform" and "With 300k apps on Apple's app store, RIM has a high mountain ahead of them to climb."

Jobs was just as candid about Google's Android OS, which competes directly with Apple's iOS devices like the iPhone and soon the iPad.  He has a major problem with the fragmentation the open-source OS has taken (each manufacturer can change Android to fit their business plan as well as the carriers changes leading to multiple closed systems based on Android).  Jobs stated: "we believe integrated will trump fragmented every time."

Steve called the upcoming competition to the iPad, a slew of 7-inch tablets due out by end of year, "DOA".  He doesn't believe that is the right size for a tablet or even a pocket computer saying "This size[7-inch] is useless unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size." and that people have no need for pocket sized computers since they already have smartphones.

Steve Jobs followed up his diatribe with a Q&A session. [Engadget] [Gizmodo]