Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170042
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
"Some years ago, it was technology as well that caused us to leave this area and consolidate our services," said Brian J. Kelly, regional operations vice president for Bell Atlantic, C&P's parent company.
But new telecommunications developments are allowing dispersal of operations again and the new directory assistance center "has already exceeded what we considered very high expectations," Kelly said.
"We could have located this center anywhere in the commonwealth," said Hugh R. Stallard, C&P's president and chief executive officer.
He said Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, and Preston C. Shannon, chairman of the State Corporation Commission, had been instrumental in having C&P look at Southwest Virginia for expansion several years ago. One result was the opening of a directory assistance center in Norton in April 1988.
"And they were all absolutely correct because, without question, the Norton center has been the jewel of C&P" with its dedicated work force, Stallard said. "So it was only natural, when we looked at the growth of another center, that we look at Southwest Virginia."
The Pulaski center already has 58 operators, each handing an average of 1,000 customer contacts daily. It will soon employ 108 operators with an annual $1.8 million annual payroll, said Pulaski Mayor Gary Hancock.
Hancock and Boucher commended C&P for its recently published brochure, "Southwest Virginia: Our People Mean Business," researched by Bell Atlantic and recommending the region's workers to other companies.
Fiber optics and other communications technology means Southwest Virginia can accommodate "companies that use the electronic media as a way of transporting their product," Boucher said.
Already, Boucher said, officials at United Telecomm, which owns U.S. Sprint and Discover Card, have agreed to look at the region for directory assistance and credit card authorization centers. A team from GTE already visited Norton a few weeks ago, he said.
Shannon said the C&P centers in Norton and Pulaski will each have about 100 operators, as does an AT&T telephone center to help the hearing impaired which recently opened in Norton.
"That's 300 jobs in Southwest Virginia," Shannon said. "And I am going to encourage them to bring more such facilities to Southwest Virginia."
Peter G. Catucci, district vice president of the Communications Workers of America, said about 1,800 members of his union lost jobs when the AT&T Fairlawn plant near Radford closed last year. He said a few of those people have already been hired for the new C&P center.
Shannon observed that C&P had not increased rates since 1984. "In fact, rates have been reduced, I believe, by $130 million, Hugh," he said, turning to Stallard.
"A hundred and thirty-seven," Stallard amended, drawing laughs from the audience assembled under a tent to avoid the off-and-on rain.
The center handles directory assistance calls from northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and Washington, D.C. It is housed in a renovated and expanded building that once served as a C&P switching center before that was consolidated elsewhere.
An open house at the center will be held Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m.
by CNB