• UK outsourcer LBM is moving Belfast, Ireland operations into a larger building. The call center opened less than a year ago, growing to 300 agents. It plans to expand to 600 in its new Belfast location.
  
  Belfast Telegraph, 30 Jan. 2006

• Dell Computers will open a call center in Gurgaon, India, employing as many as 1,000 people. This will be Dell's fourth India call center, and it will boost their India workforce to 10,000.
  
  The Hindu, 30 Jan. 2006

• United Airlines is shutting down a 150-person frequent flier call center in Tucson, Arizona in April. 130 of them will be asked to move to Rapid City, South Dakota, where United has another call center. The 600-personSears Customer Care Center in Tucson has expressed interest in hiring all 150 of the laid off workers. Sears will hire 400 new agents in the next half year.
  
  Arizona Daily Star, 28 Jan. 2006

• Client Services Incorporated plans to open a call center in Denison, Texas, employing 100 people by the end of the year, and 200 more later on. It will open in March.
  
  KTEN TV 10, 27 Jan. 2006

• Monterrey, Mexico-based outsourcer Qualfon opened a 180 person call center in Guyana.
  
  Stabroek News, 26 Jan. 2006

• Hewlett Packard is opening a call center in Sofia, Bulgaria, employing 1,000 people to handle help desk calls from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
  
  Dnevnik a.m., 25 Jan. 2006

• El Paso, Texas opens a new 911 emergency call center in a "gray nondescript building" downtown, an expansion from its previous home in police headquarters.
  
  El Paso Times, 25 Jan. 2006

• Columbus, Ohio opened a new 311 information call center, employing 26 people.
  
  Ohio State University Lantern, 24 Jan. 2006

An Indian restaurant in London is getting delivery orders from a call center in far away Delhi, India, says the New Kerala online news site.

The delivery orders are booked by London businesses over the internet via lastminute.com, and agents in India call the restaurant, Café Spice Namaste, to fill them.

New Kerala quote the restaurant's owner: "My staff had been extremely intrigued by these calls for a while. They try on their American accents with us but we were pretty sure the calls were coming from India. It is amusing that the orders travel nearly 5000 miles to be finally delivered just half a mile away."

In Hyderabad, India, a female executive at a Dell Computer call center was the victim of a "misbehaving" cab driver. India's IBN Live broke the story as another case of poor call center security.

After a woman was raped and murdered in Bangalore by a driver a few months ago, India is cracking down on security to and from call centers.

The woman in Hyderabad text-messaged her friends, who intercepted the taxi and beat the cabbie. He was then arrested for his conduct in the cab, which IBN Live was vague about. The Telegraph reported that the driver, Yakoob Reddy, was swearing and making obscene gestures.

IBN Live opines: "Why was this 22 year-old cab driver, who joined just a month ago, allowed to drop the executive without any security guard?"