Austin is in line to grow with AT&T Inc., as the company will lease a 72,000 square feet space for its new mobility technology lab in the northwest side of town, near Parmer Lane and Spectrum Drive.
Officials at AT&T remain quiet about the number of employees the company expects to hire and the type of work that will be performed at the center, but Pat Orman, a representative of AT&T corporate real estate, said the company plans to mostly bring in new local staff, with some managerial support from outside of Austin.
AT&T already operates a testing lab in north Austin off U.S. 183 and Loop 360 with approximately 300 employees and contractors, where manufacturers tinker with smartphones, tablets, and other wireless devices to test and certify optimal use for the carrier’s network.
The announcement of the new center comes in the wake of AT&T’s proposal to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, which, if approved, would make AT&T the largest carrier in the nation in excess of 130 million customers.
“The AT&T labs in Austin are going to be front and center in the industry,” said Iain Gilliott, industry analyst with iGR. Gillott said the lab will be of utmost importance to device makers because any wireless products not meeting AT&T’s testing standards will be closed to a huge part of the U.S. market.
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