EE is latest to dump foreign call centres
600 jobs created as new boss puts customers first
MOBILE phone group EE will create 600 new jobs by bringing its call centres back to the UK.
In his first move as new chief executive, Marc Allera has revealed a raft of changes aimed at pleasing customers – including a pledge to extend superfast 4G internet to 95pc of the country, from the Shetland Islands to the Isles of Scilly.
By the end of 2016, all of EE’s customer service calls will be answered by UKbased operators, with new sites set to open in Plymouth, South Wales and North Tyneside, creating hundreds of jobs.
It makes EE, which currently has 31m phone and internet connections in the UK, the latest in a string of companies to abandon foreign call centres after they outsourced the work to India and other lower-wage nations in the mid-2000s.
EE also promised to improve its highspeed 4G mobile internet service.
At present many mobile operators boast coverage at levels of around 90pc, but this often refers to population coverage rather than geographic, leaving rural customers high and dry. EE will seek to eradicate these so-called not-spots – as opposed to hot-spots – by reaching 95pc of geographic areas, even those as remote as the Shetland Islands.
Allera, who took on the role in January after EE merged with BT, said: ‘We are really pleased we’re rolling out 4G coverage further than any mobile operator has ever gone. At the start of this year our geographic coverage was around 50pc, but we’re going to push that up to 95pc by the end of the decade.
‘The industry should be moving towards wider geographic coverage because people move around.’
He said the company was improving its customer service, and now received 16pc of industry complaints while having a market share of 34pc.
It comes after EE claimed the top spot in a series of internet speed tests by regulator Ofcom. The watchdog looked at EE alongside competitors Three, Vodafone and O2, testing their 4G coverage in five cities. It found EE’s network delivered an average speed of 20 megabits per second (Mbps). O2 was half as fast, with average speeds of 10Mbps.
EE’s plan to create more jobs in the UK shows it is following a trend already set by new owner BT.
In January, the landline operator announced its own recruitment drive after huge numbers of complaints from frustrated users. BT pledged to hire 1,000 more UK staff and move much of its Indian workforce into positions which do not involve talking to customers.
It was part of a promise to spend £80m on customer service and ensure at least 80pc of calls were answered in Britain by the end of this year.
The moves by big telephone companies stand in stark contrast to an announcement by Lloyds last week. The High Street lender revealed it would be moving about 80 IT roles from the UK to India as part of a push to axe 430 jobs and close 21 branches. Trade union Unite said customers would suffer as a result. A spokesman added: ‘The bank forgets that these relentless cuts have a human cost.’