Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (TDS)
Broadband provider with a tower business. Read November 8, 2026 from the annual report for the period ending December 31, 2025, filed February 24, 2026. Ranked 43 of the 51 Communication Services companies read so far, by the share within reach now.
Within reach now
40%
projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index
End of 2028
49%
Employees, annual report
4,000
Leading staffing pattern
Telecommunications
Share of the working time within reach, long-run pace, four times in five
Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- Now40%
- End of 202747%
- End of 202849%
- End of 203050%
What changes for its people by the end of 2028, by its industries' figures
- Stays with people 50%
- Becomes checking a model's work 39%
- Handed over with lighter checks 10%
Telephone and Data Systems states about 4,000 associates, about 3,500 of them at TDS Telecom, read at telecommunications, with the remainder at the Array tower business read at real estate; the wireless operations were sold in 2025.
The figures on this page come from the company's own annual report and from BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. They are estimates with a stated method. Nothing here says what the company will do: within reach is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
What follows from the reading
Share of working time within reach of AI, on the long-run pace at four in five: 40% now, 47% at the end of 2027, 49% at the end of 2028, 50% at the end of 2030. By the patterns, the work is about 50% desk work, 21% people work and 29% body work. These are the site's industry estimates weighted by the shares below: estimates with a stated method and range, not a forecast of what the company will do. By the same patterns, at the end of 2028 about 50% of the working time stays with people (conversation, in-person and hands-on work), 39% becomes checking a model's work and 10% could be handed over with lighter checks, from the industries' own figures, not the company's roles.
Headcount
4,000 employees as of December 31, 2025 (stated). The filing describes broadband service in 30 states and a U.S. tower business and states no count by country; recorded as 1 with a flag.
The filing: “TDS had approximately 4,000 full-time and part-time associates as of December 31, 2025.”
The workforce as industry patterns
| Pattern | Share | Reason, from the filing |
|---|---|---|
| Telecommunications | 87% | Stated count (a): TDS Telecom employs approximately 3,500 associates serving 1.1 million connections in 30 states, about 87% of the 4,000, wired broadband and voice services, telecommunications, NAICS 517. |
| Real Estate | 13% | By subtraction from stated counts (a): the remaining about 500 associates run Array, the tower company left after the sale of the wireless operations, which the filing calls an owner and operator of real estate, read at real estate, NAICS 531, as towers are, with the parent's corporate staff inside. |
What the filing says about the workforce: About 4,000 full-time and part-time associates, about 3,500 of them at TDS Telecom; the count stood at 7,900 a year earlier before the wireless operations were sold to T-Mobile in 2025, leaving the tower business as Array; no union, hourly or part-time counts stated.
Companies read with the same leading pattern
Other companies whose largest staffing pattern is also Telecommunications, largest first, each read from its own annual report. Within reach now and at the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- Comcast (CMCSA, 179,000 employees)38% now, 49% by 2028
- AT&T (T, 133,030 employees)40% now, 51% by 2028
- Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR, 91,900 employees)40% now, 51% by 2028
- Verizon (VZ, 89,900 employees)40% now, 51% by 2028
- T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS, 75,000 employees)40% now, 51% by 2028
- Lumen Technologies, Inc. (LUMN, 24,000 employees)40% now, 51% by 2028
- Liberty Latin America Ltd. (LILA, 9,000 employees)41% now, 52% by 2028
- Uniti Group Inc. (UNIT, 8,632 employees)40% now, 51% by 2028
What the filing says about AI
2 sentences in the filing name AI. The filing's two AI sentences are risk factors: investments in AI capabilities by others may render its infrastructure obsolete, and the adoption of AI may intensify its cybersecurity risk.
- “Future technological changes or advancements, including investments in artificial intelligence capabilities, may enable other technologies to equal or exceed TDS' current levels of service and render its system infrastructure obsolete.”
- “The rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies may intensify TDS' cybersecurity risk.”
Its annual reports, year by year
Sentences naming AI in each annual report, counted by one rule, beside the median report in the Index that year. Each count links its filing. Every company, by year and sector
- Fiscal 20210median 0
- Fiscal 20220median 0
- Fiscal 20231median 1
- Fiscal 20241median 4
- Fiscal 20252median 10
Headcount by filing year
As reported in each year's annual report, with the filing. A year marked not read had no figure the reading could take from the report's text.
| Period | Employees | Filed | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-31 | 4,000 | 2026-02-24 | 10-K |
| 2024-12-31 | 7,900 | 2025-02-21 | 10-K |
| 2023-12-31 | 8,800 | 2024-02-16 | 10-K |
| 2022-12-31 | 9,300 | 2023-02-16 | 10-K |
| 2021-12-31 | 8,800 | 2022-02-17 | 10-K |
| 2020-12-31 | 9,200 | 2021-02-18 | 10-K |
| 2019-12-31 | 9,400 | 2020-02-25 | 10-K |
| 2018-12-31 | 9,400 | 2019-02-22 | 10-K |
| 2017-12-31 | 9,900 | 2018-02-26 | 10-K |
| 2016-12-31 | 10,300 | 2017-02-24 | 10-K |
| 2015-12-31 | 10,400 | 2016-02-24 | 10-K |
| 2014-12-31 | 10,600 | 2015-02-25 | 10-K |
| 2013-12-31 | 10,500 | 2014-02-28 | 10-K |
| 2012-12-31 | 12,100 | 2013-02-26 | 10-K |
| 2011-12-31 | 12,300 | 2012-02-27 | 10-K |
| 2010-12-31 | 12,400 | 2011-02-25 | 10-K |
| 2009-12-31 | 12,400 | 2010-02-25 | 10-K |
| 2008-12-31 | 12,500 | 2009-02-26 | 10-K |
| 2007-12-31 | 11,800 | 2008-02-29 | 10-K |
| 2006-12-31 | 11,800 | 2007-06-19 | 10-K |
| 2005-12-31 | 11,500 | 2006-07-28 | 10-K |
| 2004-12-31 | 11,500 | 2005-03-11 | 10-K |
| 2003-12-31 | 10,900 | 2004-03-12 | 10-K |
| 2002-12-31 | 11,100 | 2003-03-20 | 10-K |
| 2001-12-31 | 9,300 | 2002-03-27 | 10-K405 |
| 2000-12-31 | 8,860 | 2001-03-28 | 10-K |
| 1999-12-31 | 10,150 | 2000-03-30 | 10-K405 |
| 1998-12-31 | 9,907 | 1999-03-31 | 10-K405 |
Limits of this reading
- The U.S. share of 1 rests on the filing's description of U.S. operations, not a stated count.
- The data service's segment and geography tables are from fiscal 2024 and show revenue types, not segments; the split rests on the stated TDS Telecom count.
Source: the company's annual report on EDGAR, accession 0001051512-26-000011, the filing. Read by Claude Fable 5.1 under rubric version 1, by the method. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
The report on Telephone and Data Systems, Inc., $29
This page as a document to keep, with what it does not show: the share within reach at every date on three paces and two reliabilities, a typical workforce of this shape at the stated headcount role by role and task by task (the industries' staffing, never the company's roster), where to start, what changes for the people and what they would learn, every sentence in the filing that names AI, the headcount by year, the companies read with the same leading pattern, the method and a citation line. To print or save as a PDF, open again in your browser for a year.
See the report, $29See the sample first: Walmart's report is free
Questions about this company
- How much of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.'s working time is within reach of AI?
- An estimated 40% now and 49% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five, from the workforce Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.'s own annual report describes and BLS staffing patterns for its industries, never from a roster. It is an estimate with a stated method. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings, and it says nothing about what the company will do.
- How many people does Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. employ?
- 4,000 as of December 31, 2025, as its annual report for the period ending December 31, 2025 states. About 100% in the U.S.
- What kinds of work make up Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.'s workforce?
- Read from its annual report as a blend of 2 industry staffing patterns, the largest Telecommunications; by those patterns the work is about 50% desk work, 21% people work and 29% body work. Each share has a one-sentence reason on this page that can be checked against the filing.
- What does Telephone and Data Systems, Inc.'s annual report say about AI?
- 2 sentences in the filing name AI. Its annual reports for fiscal 2021 to 2025 name it in 0, 0, 1, 1 and 2 sentences, year by year. They are counted and quoted on this page, never judged: a count says how much a filing talks about AI, not what the company does with it.
- How is this estimated?
- Claude Fable 5.1 read the annual report under the Index's written rubric (version 1) on November 8, 2026: the stated headcount, the share in the U.S. when stated, and the workforce as a blend of industry staffing patterns. The estimates are the site's industry estimates weighted by those shares, from O*NET tasks with estimated lengths and METR's measurements of how long a task AI models can finish. A company can write to info@stratussc.com to have its reading checked against its filing.
Embed these figures on your site
A small card with the share of working time within reach now and at the end of 2027, 2028 and 2030, the date and a link back. Free under CC BY 4.0; the card carries the credit.