T-Mobile hiring for 1,000 call center jobs in Kingsburg CA

It’s been almost three years since T-Mobile has announced its plans to establish a new customer call center in Kingsburg as part of its merger with competing telecommunications company Sprint.

Now applications are taken online for what will eventually become more than 1,000 new jobs at the center, located in the old Kmart building on Sierra Street just west of Highway 99 in the county town of Fresno.

Most jobs are for “Associate Experts,” the people who will handle customer calls. These jobs require computer literacy, balancing multiple tasks at the same time, understanding technology and mobile devices, helping customers resolve issues, and providing information about services and devices.

Associate expert jobs come with a base salary of $20 an hour “plus serious bonus potential for high performers,” according to the job posting on T-Mobile website. Benefits for part-time and full-time employees include medical, dental and vision benefits, 401(k) retirement savings plan, employee equity grants, phone service discounts, reimbursement studies and other features.

Other jobs at the Kingsburg center include coaches, trainers, senior analysts, managers and senior executives.

The job application process for posts at the center is online with links listed at the bottom of each job posting.

The center is one of many new facilities across the United States, including Kansas and New York; the Kingsburg site will handle calls from all over the western part of the country.

What’s in it for Kingsburg?

“I’m thrilled that we’re adding 1,000 more talented people from the Kingsburg area to our team,” said Callie Field, chief customer experience officer at T-Mobile.

An economic analysis commissioned by T-Mobile in 2019 projected that the Kingsburg call center would have 1,007 employees, including 841 customer representatives and 166 managers and support staff.

“T-Mobile estimates center employees will have an average weekly compensation of between $1,129 and $1,254 ‘in salary and benefits,'” Berkeley Research Group analysis says Center’s total payroll — which is expected to be fully staffed and operational in 2022 – expected to be between $56-65 million per year.

Berkeley Research analysis indicated that the costs of renting a call center site would be approximately $1.5 million per year.

The city of Kingsburg has approximately 12,000 inhabitants. The community’s location at the junction of three counties – Fresno, Kings and Tulare – means the new center will likely draw its workforce from across the region.

Long to come

T-Mobile first announced plans to locate its new “customer experience center” in Kingsburg in April 2019, as the mobile carrier was planning its merger with Sprint.

But the location came with a catch – the call center, and its promise of 1,000 new jobs for Kingsburg and surrounding areas of Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties, would only become a reality if the $26 billion merger dollars with Sprint was approved by the US Department. of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission.

In its quarterly earnings statement for the first quarter of 2019, T-Mobile reported that it had more than 81.3 million customers, while Sprint’s recent earnings report for the end of 2018 indicated that it had more than 81.3 million customers. had nearly 55 million subscribers to its services.

To assuage federal antitrust concerns, T-Mobile had to sell the popular Boost Mobile prepaid wireless service, and other Sprint assets are being sold to DISH, the satellite TV provider that will now enter the market. wireless telephone sector.

One of the latest hurdles for the center came in March 2020, when then-California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced a settlement between the state and the two merged telecommunications companies. California was among several states to file a lawsuit to block the merger on the grounds that it would harm competition in the wireless industry.

The settlement with California and other states included provisions for the “new T-Mobile:

• Provide low cost plans available in the state for at least five years.
• Freeze current rate plans for at least two more years.
• Offer free high-speed Internet service and a free mobile Wi-Fi hotspot to eligible low-income households who currently do not have broadband access.
• Offer “substantially similar employment” to all current retail employees of T-Mobile and Sprint in California.
• Within three years of entering into the agreement, the newly merged T-Mobile agrees to have a total number of employees equal to or greater than the number of workers currently employed by the two separate companies.
• Increase participation in a diversity and inclusion program to 60% of its employees within three years.
• Reimburse California and other appeal coalition states up to $15 million for merger investigation and litigation costs.

Before the merger, T-Mobile and Sprint were the third and fourth largest mobile carriers in the United States, far behind Verizon and AT&T. The merger propelled the new combined company to a stronger third place.

This story was originally published January 21, 2022 1:29 p.m.