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Cingular Wireless Proposes 600-Worker Call Center

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Dennis Darrow, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Apr. 11--Cell phone giant Cingular Wireless proposes building a 600-employee call center in Pueblo, an executive confirmed Monday.

Negotiations are under way with city of Pueblo leaders on an incentives package, said Daniel Kramer, a Cingular executive from Atlanta, Ga., who is in Pueblo for the talks.

Among the sites under consideration: The former Andrews Produce land next to the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk. Kramer on Monday said only that several site options are under consideration.

The deal is not final.

Pueblo City Council on Monday night approved a resolution to continue private talks over the project, code-named "Spiderman" on the agenda, but offered no public comment on the proposal.

Cingular Wireless proposes a 550- to 600-person call center that would handle inbound calls, primarily from existing customers who need billing or service assistance, Kramer said.

The ongoing talks with city leaders focus on the incentives package and, "We also want to make sure the community believes we're a good fit," Kramer said. "We do believe Pueblo is a great fit for us."

Construction of the call center would begin immediately after City Council approval of an incentives package, Kramer said. The center could open as early as the fall, he said.

"We've been at this for some time," Kramer said.

Cingular Wireless, known by its "Raising the Bar" ad campaign, is the largest wireless company in the U.S. with more than 54 million subscribers. Cingular is a joint venture between AT&T Inc. and BellSouth.

Cingular would become the fifth call center in Pueblo.

Asked whether Pueblo can handle another call center, Kramer referred to the city's elevated unemployment rate, 6.8 percent in January and 6.1 percent in February.

Also, "We see very good growth in the counties south of Colorado Springs," he said. "We believe the community has the capability to support us."

How the city's existing call centers would react to the arrival of another center remains unclear.

One call center, RMS, agreed to open a branch in Pueblo on condition that the city put a cap on call center jobs equal to 3 percent of the city's total employment; however, no local agency has ever publicly reported how close the city is to the 3 percent cap.

Another call center, Express Scripts, sent representatives to Monday night's council meeting but no one from the company requested to address the council at the meeting.

Other call centers in Pueblo include Convergys and Innotrac.

Cingular Wireless offers competitive pay and benefits, Kramer said. Cingular Wireless employees are represented by the Communication Workers of America union.

The Pueblo call center would be the company's first call center in the state, he said. The call center operators would assist clients across the Western U.S., he said.

As many as 70 of the workers would serve in management roles, he said.

Pueblo developer Louie Carleo, whose LDC Properties owns the former Andrews Warehouse property, considered a possible site for the call center, declined immediate comment on the Cingular Wireless proposal Monday night.

Kramer declined to discuss any details of a possible incentive package, saying he thought such information should come from Pueblo city leaders. Kramer said he hoped for talks to reach a conclusion in the near future, possibly by next week.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

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Source: The Pueblo Chieftain

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