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The Business Council strongly opposes this legislation, which would require telecommunications corporations to provide certain call center services to customers from centers located within their respective in-state service territories.
This bill is based on the argument that call center services provided from a location within a specific geographic region somehow provide a greater level of responsiveness and sensitivity to customer concerns and questions.
The physical location of the call center has no bearing on the timeliness and responsiveness of addressing customer concerns. Most of the specific services listed in the bill are done electronically (such as determining customer financial responsibility, determining required deposit or billing rates, preparing service orders, investigating high bills and credit arrangements).
This legislation is inappropriate in today's telecommunication marketplace. It flies in the face of the restructured, competitive premise of New York's telecommunications industry and would increase costs to consumers by restricting companies from efficiently managing the costs associated with the operation of their call centers. At the same time it would provide out of state call centers, with no New York presence, a competitive advantage over New York companies. This bill would harm, rather than protect the legitimate economic interests of the State.
The Business Council strongly opposes measures such as this which place unreasonable limits on business activity and for these reasons, we urge you to oppose A.7144-A / S.4434-B.