U.S. telecom behemoth, AT&T Inc. (T Quick QuoteT - Free Report) , and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) finally approved a four-year contract with the telco’s Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell subsidiaries.

This new agreement was signed on Jul 14, after extensive discussions between AT&T, the CWA, and a federal mediator provided through the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

The contract will include 17,000 wireline and DirecTV employees in California and Nevada. Per the deal, AT&T would provide a series of pay raises, improvements in job security and retirement benefits, continued affordable healthcare, and other improvements for AT&T West and DirecTV West workers therein.

Notably, with this AT&T has sealed 31 different labor agreements since 2015, covering over 145,000 employees. This was the first proposed contract for DirecTV workers since AT&T’s acquisition of the pay-TV operator.

The finalization of such agreements is expected to help the service provider solidify its relationship with its union workforce, and encourage the employees to continue with the existing labor contract.

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Going forward, AT&T has agreed to acquire media giant, Time Warner Inc. , in an $85.4 billion cash-and-stock deal. If the proposed merger finally goes through, the combined entity will become a major player in the consolidated telecom-media space and might be a competition to Comcast Corporation (CMCSA Quick QuoteCMCSA - Free Report) , who acquired NBC Universal in 2011.

In fact, AT&T’s 5G trials in 2017 and plans to launch 3GPP Mobile 5G Services in late 2018, along with deployment of 28GHz and 39GHz spectrum bands bode well for its 5G strategy.

Furthermore, the company’s rival, Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ Quick QuoteVZ - Free Report) , is also planning to implement virtualized RAN technologies to increase the efficiency of its wireless network design and save money.

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