Gte To Locate Another Processing Center In Cda Facility To Open This Summer, Expected To Hire 70 Employees

GTE will open a second national order-processing center in Coeur d’Alene, the telecommunications company announced Wednesday.

The center will open this summer and eventually employ about 70 people. Employees will take orders from Internet service providers nationwide that want to tap into GTE’s digital subscriber lines.

The lines, also called DSL, allow rapid data transmission over the Internet. Computer users can make voice calls and download data or send e-mails at the same time, said Chrin Tarola, GTE’s operations manager in Coeur d’Alene.

“It’s a very fast growing area,” she said. “As they say, you can never make too much money, or have too much bandwidth.”

GTE announced the new center at the annual meeting of Jobs Plus. The Coeur d’Alene-based job recruitment agency was instrumental in bringing the first national processing center to Coeur d’Alene in 1998. That center employs nearly 300 people, filling orders for competing telephone providers who want to access GTE’s infrastructure.

High productivity rates for workers in the first center convinced GTE to locate a second one here, said Sean Fleming, who works for GTE’s wholesale market division in Dallas.

“We wanted to take advantage of the ability to hire that kind of employee,” he said.

Hiring will begin within 60 to 90 days, Fleming said. GTE is looking for workers with computer and data entry skills, and the ability to learn the billing system. The pay scale has not been established.

GTE is currently negotiating for up to 18,000 square feet of space at the Prairie Commerce Park but hasn’t finalized a lease, Fleming said. GTE’s has one other DSL center in San Angelo, Texas.

With an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent in Kootenai County, GTE’s decision to locate a second center in Coeur d’Alene means a lot to the community, Jobs Plus President Bob Potter said.

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Hiring

GTE will begin hiring within 60 to 90 days, Sean Fleming said. The company is looking for workers with computer and data entry skills, and the ability to learn the billing system. The pay scale has not been established.