An AT&T Inc. call center will be leaving Wichita by the end of summer, leaving as many as 78 full-time employees to ponder whether to move with the company or find new jobs.

Jerry Lawrence, a corporate spokesman for AT&T, says there will be new call centers in Houston and North Hollywood, Calif. The Wichita call center will be closed by August. Some current employees will have an opportunity to move with the company, Lawrence says, should they qualify.

Lawrence confirmed that 76 to 78 Wichita employees will be affected. He denied it was a layoff.

"We don't use that word," Lawrence said. "We're just playing out the collective-bargaining agreement with the union. There's a distinction."

For years, the company has had a service call center in Wichita along with other administrative functions. The company's Wichita office is at 154 N. Broadway.

San Antonio-based AT&T in April said it would lay off 4,650 employees nationwide, or about 1.5 percent of its 300,000-person workforce. The company said the cuts would help it operate more efficiently and primarily would be in management jobs, streamlining its operations in non-customer-facing areas.

AT&T had 709 full-time Wichita employees in early 2007, according to the Wichita Business Journal Book of Lists. That was down from about 800 in late 2005 when the firm purchased SBC Communications Inc.