DirecTV call center to arrive with some 1,000 new jobs

West TeleServices site here might be affected by addition

DirecTV plans to open a company-owned call center at 400 Diamond Drive, a building in Thornton Research Park once occupied by SCI Systems Inc.

The call center is scheduled to open in the late summer or early fall, said Robert Mercer, a DirecTV spokesman.

"We're looking at approximately 1,000 new DirecTV jobs in the market," he said.

DirecTV announced in May the company planned to build a Huntsville call center. Another new company-owned call center in Tulsa, Okla., will start taking calls in the middle of July, Mercer said.

Most of DirecTV technical calls have been handled by two locations of West TeleServices, including the West call center in Huntsville, which started taking calls in July 2000. Calls have also been taken by DirecTV's call center in Boise, Idaho, and other locations.

Sanmina-SCI put its two buildings on Diamond Drive on the market last summer.

Both new company-owned call centers will take technical calls from DirecTV customers from around the country, Mercer said.

"We're going to transition as many DirecTV-dedicated call center employees (from West) to our call center as we can," Mercer said. He said he didn't know the number of employees that might make the move.

DirecTV is working with West to make sure that those DirecTV-dedicated customer service representatives are aware of the opportunity to make the move to DirecTV, he said.

A West TeleServices spokeswoman couldn't be reached for comment on the number of West employees here that might be affected. When Omaha, Neb.-based West opened its Huntsville center four years ago, it announced plans to hire 1,000 people.

Last fall, West shut down a call center in Mobile, cutting about 400 jobs.

DirecTV is a digital television service provider with 12.6 million customers.