{"id":112034,"date":"2026-01-06T00:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112034\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T00:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T00:24:17","slug":"a-timeline-of-the-telecommunication-giants-time-in-north-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/112034\/","title":{"rendered":"A timeline of the telecommunication giant\u2019s time in North Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

AT&T \u2014 a titan in U.S. corporate history \u2014 is moving its headquarters from Dallas to Plano in one of the biggest shifts in corporate homes among North Texas hubs. <\/p>\n

The relocation likely will begin in less than three years<\/a>, delivering the suburb yet another HQ-related win. That will add to corporate names like Toyota and Ericsson<\/a> that have put some of their regional hubs in the municipality. <\/p>\n

Still, it\u2019s not clear what will happen to the downtown Dallas site, which has about two million square feet and a campus-like feel that makes it a stand-out in the city\u2019s core. <\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\"Saks<\/p>\n

AT&T\u2019s HQ history here isn\u2019t as long as some \u2014 with Texas Instruments and Southwest Airlines extending further back. But it\u2019s been a dynamic one. Below is a timeline for its stay in the city and some other key dates, given its unusually long history in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Business Briefing<\/p>\n

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1876: Alexander Graham Bell invents the telephone<\/a>, and the next year, the Bell Telephone Company was founded to commercialize the technology. <\/p>\n

1885: The American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (AT&T) was established to build and operate the first long-distance telephone network.<\/p>\n

1984: With an antitrust agreement, the former AT&T divests its local telephone operations, splitting into seven independent regional operating companies, known as the \u201cBaby Bells.\u201d One of them, Southwestern Bell Corp. (later renamed SBC Communications Inc. in 1995), began its own path of growth.<\/p>\n

2005: After other deals, San Antonio\u2019s SBC acquires AT&T Corp., adopts the AT&T name, and created a new AT&T Inc.<\/p>\n

2008: AT&T relocates its headquarters from San Antonio to Dallas. The former CEO, Randall Stephenson, said at the time: \u201cBeing headquartered in Dallas will benefit our long-term growth prospects and human resource needs,\u201d among other things. Then Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said \u201cwe worked hard\u201d to get it to Dallas \u2014 even as San Antonio officials were caught off-guard. <\/p>\n

2009: Company invests in the local community with naming rights<\/a> for the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.<\/p>\n

2013: AT&T takes naming rights <\/a>of Texas Stadium to give it the title of AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, one of the region\u2019s most prized assets. <\/p>\n

2016: AT&T, even after speculation it might leave downtown, doubles down on the city with plans for a renovation of the downtown site and what\u2019s to become the Discovery District. <\/p>\n

2018: Construction under way <\/a>for downtown Discovery District in a roughly $100 million effort to reshape its Dallas headquarters. The upgrades are meant to help the company attract and retain workers.<\/p>\n

AT&T acquires Time Warner and adds a formidable list of media brands including Warner Bros., HBO, CNN and other properties. <\/p>\n

2021: Discovery District opens amid challenges of COVID-19. Among its signature features<\/a> is a 104-foot-tall video board, or \u201cmedia wall,\u201d that wraps the corner of one of the four buildings fronting the plaza. The campus also includes a sculpture, restaurants and an open walking area for visitors. <\/p>\n

2022: AT&T had nearly 6,000 workers assigned to its downtown offices.<\/p>\n

In April of this year, AT&T spun off its media division, including Warner Bros. and HBO, and merged it with another company to create Warner Bros. Discovery. With the move AT&T refocuses on the mobile and wired communications business.<\/p>\n

2024: Speculation grows about potential HQ move outside of Dallas. Having scoured North Texas for office space since the start of the year, AT&T<\/a> intensified its search outside of downtown Dallas by October \u2014 with a particular focus on Plano and Frisco.<\/p>\n

Jan. 5, 2025: CEO John Stankey says company will build a new global headquarters in Plano with a Legacy Drive site on 54 acres of land. The move will \u201cprovide us the necessary room to cost effectively consolidate all Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex administrative space,\u201d the executive said. Partial occupancy for the new headquarters could come \u201cas early as the second half of 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>Plano leaders herald \u2018major win\u2019 in AT&T headquarter relocation<\/a><\/p>\n

Leaders celebrated the telecom giant\u2019s move to Perot\u2019s former EDS campus as another feather in the cap for the city.<\/p>\n

\"Pedestrians<\/a>AT&T to build global headquarters in Plano, leaving Downtown Dallas campus in limbo<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fortune 500 company had been weighing its future in Dallas, where it spent $100 million on a sprawling Discovery District.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Dallas leaders say downtown didn\u2019t fit with AT&T headquarter plans<\/a><\/p>\n

The mayor and city manager said AT&T preferred a \u201chorizontal\u201d campus to Dallas\u2019 skyscrapers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AT&T \u2014 a titan in U.S. corporate history \u2014 is moving its headquarters from Dallas to Plano in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[910,102,104,103,109,160],"class_list":{"0":"post-112034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-downtown-dallas","13":"tag-plano"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}