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AT&T plans to add 300 employees to staff a customer call center in Reno.

Another 350 employees will be based in Las Vegas. The 650 jobs will support AT&T Yahoo! high-speed Internet subscribers both business and residential who self-install their service or have basic questions about the service.

Hiring will begin in Reno next spring, says Hal Lenox, president of AT&T Nevada. Those call center jobs will pay $30,000 a year in base pay, says Lenox, plus benefits. He values each job at $40,000 a year.

But an added benefit, he says, is entry to the corporate world. "I started with AT&T 30 years ago as a telephone operator," Lenox recalls.

The company will situate the added staff on the second floor at its headquarters, located between Plumb Lane and Cazazza Drive, says Lenox. The building will need be reinforced to handle the load.

Tom Fitzgerald at Nevadaworks gathered demographics to prove the region could provide the needed employees, says Lenox.

Market research, he adds, shows that 50 percent of the residential market will have high speed Internet before long.

Meanwhile, AT&T's Project Lightspeed is laying the groundwork for U-verse, an Internet television suite positioned to compete with cable. Already available in other Western cities, it's planned to roll out Reno at an unspecified future date, says Lenox.

"Imagine a world where wireless, wirelines and television work together," says Lenox. For example, a person can use a cell phone to start videotaping a TV show. A TV viewer can display onscreen caller ID from the home phone land line.

But will people want communications so complicated?

"You can engage with the technology as much as you want," he says.

The state Legislature passed two bills that sweetened AT&Ts decision to base 650 jobs in the state, says Lenox. The laws affect video franchising and pricing flexibility; in effect, allowing large carriers the flexibility enjoyed by smaller telcoms.

While passage of the bills did not directly influence AT&T's decision, says Lenox, "They did add strength to my argument to bring jobs to this state. This is a state that says consumers deserve choice with minimal governmental interference."