AT&T is to return 2,000 outsourced DSL broadband support jobs, based in the US and overseas, to its payroll, following a union agreement over pay rates.

The telco does not say where those call center jobs are currently based or who is losing the outsourcing gigs. And it hasn't decided where in the US it will locate a presumably humungous call center to house its new hires. But we imagine it will be in a low-wage region offering the biggest tax breaks and juiciest construction subsidies.

AT&T's Bill Blase, executive veep in charge of labor relations, hailed the company's working relationship with the Communications Workers of America, which has "recognized the mutual importance of creating these jobs with competitive wages and benefits that enhance the company's ability to compete while creating good jobs".

AT&T says the jobs will be created by the end of 2008.

Press release here. ®