Following on the heels of Google Fiber’s announcement Tuesday that it will offer gigabit Internet services in Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area, AT&T said Friday that it needs to fill nearly 100 technician positions in North Carolina.
AT&T launched its version of super-fast Internet services, GigaPower, on Dec. 8 in Carrboro, Cary, Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Winston-Salem, and also plans to bring the service to Durham, Charlotte and Greensboro. A news release Friday said the 100 positions will help the company meet growing demands for its services, including U-verse with GigaPower.
AT&T has not announced plans to upgrade to Gigapower in Wilmington, but the company launched U-verse high-speed Internet, U-verse TV and U-verse Voice services
in portions of New Hanover County in September.
Three of the technician positions are Wilmington-based, and the new local employees are needed to work on U-verse and other aspects of the area’s current AT&T network, said AT&T spokesman Josh Gelinas.
The company hired about 900 employees throughout the state in 2014, according to a news release Friday.
In addition to its technician positions, the release said, AT&T wants to fill nearly 200 business sales and call center positions in North Carolina, outside of the Wilmington area.
More AT&T jobs could be in store for North Carolina in the future.
“Our hiring is always evolving,” Gelinas said. “These are full-time jobs with great benefits and great prospects for a long and rewarding career.”
In March,
AT&T announced that it planned to hire 130 additional employees in retail, technician and call center jobs in the state, including 16 new technician positions in Wilmington.
AT&T and Google Fiber might be two of the largest but are not the only Internet service providers in the race to capture the growing demand for faster service. ATMC, a nonprofit telephone cooperative, offers some Brunswick County residents Internet speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second through its Fiber Optic Communication Service (FOCUS).