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Home run in Philippines
[July 30, 2006]

Home run in Philippines


(The Statesman (India) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN MANILA, July 30: The small but growing number of mom and pop call centre operators in the Philippines is the next target market of Digital Paradise Inc., operator of the countrys largest Internet cafe chain.



The company said that it will soon be entering into a proof-of-concept project with a startup call centre firm that will use a branch of its Netopia Internet cafe chain as a call centre facility at night.

Mr Jose Maria Grau, chief operating officer of Digital Paradise, said the firm is in the final stages of securing a separate E1 leased line from the Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Company (PLDT) for the project. He did not identify the call centre firm.


Digital Paradise is owned by PLDT, through its Internet subsidiary ePLDT.

Instead of using the business DSL connection, which is the common line used by all of our branches, the startup will have a secure and highly reliable E1 connection, Mr Grau said.

Mr Grau said that the idea of having a call centre use an Internet cafe, as a rented facility, was borne out of the rising number of small call centres that have 25 seats or fewer.

Most of these small-scale call centres get spillover work from bigger call centre operators.

Their usage of the cafe chains facilities will not compete with Netopias regular, daytime customers, as the call centres operate at night to serve the US market, Mr Grau said.

The executive said any specialised call centre software installed on the Netopia computers will be secured to prevent usage by daytime customers.

We keep updating the security applications in all of the PCs to avoid installation of malicious applications and illegal entry by non-employees. Also, well have a rented Netopia branch under lock at night to ensure physical security, Mr Grau said.

Call centres are a growing industry in the Philippines. In 2005, the governments Board of Investments estimated that 112,000 people were now working in call centres, bringing in $1.12 billion in revenues for that year.

With a report from Agence France-Presse

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