Connecticut-based telecommunications provider Charter Communications will close its Worcester call center on June 26, as the company is reducing its overall headcount in Central Massachusetts significantly.
“We have elected to transition this work to our other U.S.-based Call centers, where we can deliver information, training, and technology to our representatives more efficiently,” Heidi Vandenbrouck, Charter’s regional director of communications, wrote in an email to WBJ.
The company behind the Spectrum brand will give the 174 employees at the center the option to relocate in their current roles to other locations, apply for other Charter jobs, or receive a comprehensive severance package, Vandenbrouck said. Those employees relocating will receive relocation assistance.
In its annual survey to the WBJ Research Department, Charter said its employee headcount in Central Massachusetts has dropped from 548 to 183.
The move by Charter comes the same week North Carolina-based Ripple Fiber announced it would invest $140 million into a fiber optic network in Central Massachusetts, offering customers an alternative to Spectrum.
The closing of the Charter center doesn’t impact negotiations of Spectrum’s contract with the City of Worcester, City spokesman Thomas Matthews wrote in an email to WBJ.
Other Spectrum divisions at its Higgins Street facility will not be impacted, including the Spectrum News television operation and the field operations team, Vandenbrouck said.
The news of the call center’s closing was first reported by the website The016.com.
Brad Kane is the editor of Worcester Business Journal.
