Telecommunications powerhouse AT&T Inc has provided extensive assistance to the US National Security Agency as the spy agency conducts surveillance on huge volumes of Internet traffic passing through the United States, a newspaper reported.

The company gave assistance to the NSA in carrying out a secret court order allowing wiretapping of all Internet communications at the headquarters of the United Nations, one of its customers, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing newly disclosed NSA documents.

The company gave the NSA access, through several ways, to billions of e-mails flowing across its domestic networks, the newspaper reported.