Scots call centre 'huge' help as iPhone keeps O2 lines busy

Published on Thursday 15 May 2008 21:39

RONAN Dunne, head of O2 UK, yesterday reaffirmed the mobile phone giant's commitment to its Glasgow contact centre, which employs about 1,500 staff, after unveiling a "very good" first-quarter performance.

Dunne said the operation had made a "huge" contribution to the company's success in the three months to the end of March, driven by bumper broadband connections and sales of the iPhone. O2 has an exclusive contract with Apple to sell the device in the UK, and the contact centre, at Skypark in Glasgow, handles inquiries for the sleek handset, as well as registrations for high-speed internet access.

During the period, broadband connections increased by 60,711, taking the fledgling service's customer base to just over 131,400. A year earlier, the figure stood at just 24,000.

"We've been very pleased with the performance in Glasgow," Dunne told The Scotsman. "Establishing the new centre in Scotland has given greater flexibility and allowed us to have dedicated teams for iPhone and broadband.

"As we launch new propositions into the market, Skypark has been very much at the centre of a lot of the innovation that we've had in our business."

Last November, some 300 jobs were brought to Scotland to cope with demand for the iPhone following its UK launch.

O2 took on about 100 extra retail staff and 200 iPhone-designated staff at the Skypark service centre. Dunne admitted there was "always a lot of hype" surrounding a launch, but said the model had become the company's bestseller.

"We had a tariff refresh in the first quarter and that gave us some added momentum to the iPhone. In terms of our (market] outperformance in 'post-pay' (contract] connections in the first quarter, iPhone and Simplicity (O2's new 30-day contract] were probably the two key drivers."

The latest figures show that O2, which employs a further 500 shop-floor and technical staff north of the Border, increased its UK mobile base by 3.7 per cent, year-on-year, to 18.4 million.

Some 206,000 contract customers were added in the quarter, more than twice the figure for the first three months of 2007.

The number of pre-pay customers fell by 185,000 to 11.4 million, as a result of the "usual disconnections after the Christmas period, migrations to contract and the mature nature of this market".

Average revenue per user – a key industry measure – for contract subscribers was unchanged on the year at 42.40 a month.

Dunne said the group, which is owned by Spain's Telefnica, was not expecting "a significant change" in overall employment levels in Scotland, but added that the firm was "always recruiting because of the nature of the customer service environment".