Cable & Wireless Jamaica has finalised arrangements to outsource a segment of its call centre operation in July to Accent, the American firm that has since January been conducting trials on behalf of the telecom in the twin-island republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Business Observer first reported on C&W's plan to outsource its call centre last December. Last month, Sean Bryan, an executive of Cable and Wireless Jamaica, told the Business Observer that Accent had employed about 40 Trinidadians in Trinidad & Tobago to operate C&W's services since January as a part of test trials.

During the trials, calls made to C&W's contact centres in Jamaica were routed to T&T, where they have been answered by agents in that country.

In a press statement Wednesday, C&W announced that Accent would open a "new call centre facility in New Kingston in July and assume full responsibility for all incoming calls previously handled by the staff in CWJ's Kingston call centre".

The telecoms provider noted that the "200 workers to be affected by the outsourcing would be offered jobs by the new service provider", and that it would retain responsibility for telemarketing, a portion of directory services and its Montego Bay-based call centre operations, which has approximately 50 workers.

Added C&W: "Permanent employees will receive the full redundancy packages to which they are entitled, while contract workers will be treated in accordance with the provisions in their contracts."

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