Verizon plans to employ up to 1,300 at LR center
Posted on Friday, August 15, 2008
Verizon Wireless’ top executive confirmed Thursday that Alltel’s Little Rock headquarters would become a regional base that initially employs up to 1, 300 people once its $ 28. 1 billion deal to buy Alltel is finalized.
Yet with 2, 900 Alltel employees based in Pulaski County — mostly at its campus along the banks of the Arkansas River — the prospect that more than a thousand jobs will be lost or sent to other states seems inevitable.
Such centers typically employ about 100 corporate positions ranging from regional director to financial, marketing and technical positions, Chief Executive Officer Lowell Mc-Adam told a crowd estimated at 700 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.
It would include a call center that initially employs between 1, 000 and 1, 200 workers — somewhat larger than the 800 currently employed at Alltel’s call center.
Verizon hopes to “make things better” in Little Rock after the merger — and not be seen as a company that “takes things away,” McAdam said.
He also acknowledged that lost jobs are a reality of mergers — and that its acquisition of the nation’s fifth-largest wireless carrier is no different. The deal would create the nation’s largest wireless company with more than 81 million subscribers — compared with AT&T’s 71 million. Continued from Page 1 D
“If we continue to grow, there will be lots of opportunities [for additional jobs ]. Maybe not in Little Rock. But the message has been loud and clear from [U. S. Sen. Mark Pryor ] and [Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola ] that keeping jobs here is important.”
Pryor, who introduced Stodola before an audience about one-third composed of Alltel employees, said McAdam has been in contact with him, Gov. Mike Beebe and state congressional leaders even before the deal was announced.
Unlike Alltel, which has Arkansas roots going back more than six decades, Verizon did not enter the state telecom market until late 2005. It was a point Pryor said he made in persuading McAdam to speak at an event sponsored by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service.
“People in Arkansas want to know who they are dealing with,” said Pryor, describing McAdam as “a man of integrity” who “keeps his promises and overdelivers.”
After McAdam’s speech, Pryor acknowledged that efforts are ongoing to minimize the economic damage of the Verizon-Alltel merger — including the prospect of attracting future Verizon expansion to Arkansas.
But there are no guarantees.
“A [former ] Fortune 500 headquarters is going to lose some of its workers because of the merger, and we hope to pick some of that up,” Pryor said.
“If you live in Arkansas as I do and you know people who work at Alltel and have spent their careers at Alltel, you’re working hard to make sure this works out the best for them. But it’s something we’re not totally in control of.”
Stodola also expressed guarded optimism about maximizing Verizon’s presence in a city after losing one of Arkansas’ biggest corporate institutions.
“Our city and community is going to welcome Verizon with open arms and embrace them as big as they will let us,” he said. “We want to maximize the [business ] model for them as much as possible in Little Rock. We hope to convince [Verizon ] that our business environment and work ethic is appealing enough to create as large a window for opportunity as possible.”
Because of Justice Department scrutiny that requires merging companies to stay “at arm’s length” until a deal is closed, Mc-Adam said he was unable to specifically address how Alltel will be incorporated into Verizon. Beyond that, similar regulations prohibit Alltel executives from relaying information that would allow Verizon to begin weighing such decisions.
But McAdam did reveal that the Alltel campus will become a regional headquarters, joining 20 similar operations nationwide.
“Everywhere we can, we like to locate our call centers with our regional operations,” Mc-Adam said. “We generally like our relationships with customers to be known and managed from one point.”
That means that many decisions ranging from customer service to sponsorships of charities and events such as the Little Rock Marathon would be made by the regional president.
“We guard against too many policies being made out of New Jersey,” McAdam said. Verizon’s main headquarters is in Basking Ridge, N. J.
Once the deal is finalized, customers should not expect an immediate switchover to Verizon in terms of phone service, name change or other operations, he said.
“We want our customer experience to be seamless,” he said, noting that billing, signs and other changes typically take months to address. “It will probably be nine to 12 months, depending on the network technology.”
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