Dish said the job cuts are set for May as it struggles with customer defections
Dish Network is set to cut about 550 jobs as part of the closing of a customer service center in Alvin, Texas.
According to the Denver Post, the center is set to be closed in May when the location’s lease is set to expire. The satellite television provider and wireless spectrum holder said it would be “consolidating our customer service operations across our other locations in the U.S.” Employees impacted are being encouraged “to apply for other jobs in the company.”
“All employees will have two months to prepare, and during that time we will make resume and interviewing assistance available,” a company spokeswoman told the Denver Post. “We will also be inviting other local companies to conduct job fairs at our site.”
Dish is said to employ around 3,000 people in Texas across sales, service and manufacturing facilities in El Paso and customer call centers in El Paso and Harlingen. Dish has other customer call centers in Colorado, New Jersey, West Virginia, Virginia, New York, Ohio, Arizona and Oklahoma.
Dish in 2013 cut 3,000 jobs as part of a shut down of its Blockbuster division, and in 2012 picked up the title of “America’s Worst Companies to Work for” by 24/7 Wall Street.
Dish’s traditional satellite television services have been struggling with customer defections, though its over-the-top Sling service is reportedly gaining traction in the market.
Dish last year returned approximately $3.5 billion worth of spectrum a pair of its bidding partners had acquired in the Federal Communications Commission’s record-breaking AWS-3 spectrum auction proceedings. Those bidding entities, Northstar Wireless and SNR Wireless, were bankrolled by Dish and received what turned out to be unfair bidding credits as part of the FCC’s designated entity program.
Rumors surrounding a possible tie up with various telecom operators have circulated around Dish for years, with the latest involving Verizon Communications and T-Mobile US.
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