Bellevue-based T-Mobile announced Thursday that it will consolidate its call center operations nationwide from 24 to 17 facilities by the end of June, eliminating a net of 1,900 jobs, according to a press release.
None of the affected are in Bellevue, but in the following cities: Allentown, PA; Fort Lauderdale, FL; Frisco and Brownsville, TX; Lenexa, KS; Thornton, CO; and Redmond, OR. While 3,300 employees work at the call centers that will be closed, about 1,400 positions will be moved to other call centers, the company said.
“We have tremendous customer service representatives who are highly-skilled and dedicated to serving our customers. We hope as many as possible pursue transfers and stay with T-Mobile,” said Larry Myers, Chief People Officer of T-Mobile, in a prepared statement.
“Concentrating call centers is an important step to achieve competitive cost structures to successfully compete as Challenger and value player in the wireless market,” said Philipp Humm, CEO and president of T-Mobile in a prepared statement. “These are not easy steps to take, but they are necessary to realize efficiency in order to invest for growth.”
However, T-Mobile also announced that it will "restructure and optimize operations" in other parts of the business by the second quarter of 2012.
That restructuring includes a , and the addition of 1,000 new business sales positions, the company said.
T-Mobile USA, which is owned by German company Deutsche Telekom, had . The nation's fourth-largest carrier announced plans in February to stay competitive in the cellular business after a year of concentrating on the failed merger. Thursday's announcement came almost exactly a year after .
