To ensure it is ready to take on the enormous growth challenges of the next few years, Optus today confirmed plans to establish call centre operations in India to supplement its domestic call centre operations.

Mr Paul O'Sullivan, Optus Chief Executive said the decision had been taken following an extensive review of the Company's call centre operations.

"We have been reviewing the most efficient way to meet the continuing needs of our call centre functions for some time - while preserving the customer service excellence for which Optus is renowned.

"When we first discussed this publicly last year, we said - and reaffirm today - that the planned changes do not mean redundancies for any of Optus' permanent staff.

"Outsourcing some services will ensure Optus remains competitive in its offer to customers and at the same time can accommodate the expected growth within our call centre operations in Australia," Mr O'Sullivan said.

Optus currently receives about 30 million customer contacts a year and that is expected to grow.

"New technologies and the variety of bundled offers available to customers mean that we place an ever-increasing reliance on customer service.

"Optus is committed to excellence in customer service and today's decision will enable us to continue to meet the changing demands of our customers," Mr O'Sullivan said.

Optus has shortlisted potential partners to operate its Indian call centre, and will make a further announcement once contractual negotiations are complete.

The functions Optus will outsource include Mobile and Consumer & Multimedia product transactions and selected consumer customer enquiries. The new call centre in India will work in parallel with Optus' call centres in Australia.

The centre in India will initially be 150 seats in size, whereas Optus employs nearly 3,500 permanent customer service call centre staff in Australia. Optus expects the size of the Indian operation to grow over time. The call centre is expected to be operational by mid to late 2005.

"While total Australian-based call centre staff will fluctuate from time-to-time, we believe it will always be the case that Optus has several thousand Australian-based call centre employees.

"Optus is growing at a rapid rate and we expect over the next five to 10 years to double in size - this places pressure on us to continually improve our services while reducing our costs. Initiatives such as offshoring will help us remain competitive and continue to provide quality service to our customers," Mr O'Sullivan said.

For more information:
Melissa Favero
Optus Corporate Affairs
Tel: (02) 9342 7850