Verizon Hiring Hundreds Ahead of iPhone Launch
Posted by Zack | Posted in Consumer Electronics | Posted on 23-10-2010
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According to internet rumors, Verizon is supposedly hiring hundreds of call center staff through third-party hiring companies, fueling speculation that Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in the United States, is preparing to launch the iPhone according to a new report.
Teleperformance and Ryla, two customer service call center staffing companies, are looking for thousands of customer service representatives to field calls for a “major wireless cell phone service retailer,” according to a report from CNET.
Different posts from around the internet reveal that the positions will be dedicated to either a wireless, cell phone or communications company with additional positions offering technical support for personal computers as well as portable devices like MP3 players and smartphones.
One Teleperformance call center in Augusta, Georgia will more than double its employees through the hiring campaigns. “It is for a major wireless company that we have secured a new line of business, one of our existing clients,” said Marcie Ballard, Vice President of Recruiting for Teleperformance.
Both Teleperformance and Ryla have prior experience supporting Verizon. Teleperformance also works with Apple, in addition to Verizon Wireless and the other major cell phone carriers in the past. Ryla has worked with Verizon for over 10 years.
The connection between a Verizon iPhone and the massive call center recruiting is tenuous at best and could quite possible be due to the fact that Verizon has lost more ground to AT&T in the third quarter than previously expected. Third quarter earning reports from Verizon and AT&T showed that Verizon netted 584,000 new monthly-bill paying customers as opposed to AT&T’s 745,000.
Verizon CFO John Killian told Reuters that Verizon expects to add 550,000 to 600,000 new monthly-bill paying customers in the fourth quarter. This number is less than half of last year’s number. Killian also stressed the importance of converting standard users into smartphone users in order to increase revenue through sales of data plans.
Verizon is currently the largest telecommunications network in the country with 93.2 million subscribers. However, they might not hold that position long as AT&T is nipping at their heels with 92.8 million subscribers.
On Thursday AT&T announced that it had activated a record 5.2 million iPhones in the September quarter. AT&T Chief Executive Randall Stephenson called it a “terrific quarter”. AT&T also had a record number of customers signing two-year contracts.
Rumors of a 2011 Verizon gained a lot of credence this month when The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple is prepping a CDMA, Verizon-compatible iPhone for production by the end of this year. Some analysts believe Verizon could sell as many as 12 million iPhones in its first year of availability.
Responding to the report from the Journal, Verizon COO Lowell McAdam told the press earlier this month that news of a Verizon iPhone would have to come directly from Apple.