T-MOBILE SETTLES IN MAINE

“If the Red Sox can win the world championship, Maine can win on jobs and development.”

– John Baldacci, on yesterday’s announcement that T-Mobile USA would be establishing a customer-service center in Maine.

Let’s hope Maine wins a little more often than the Red Sox, as much as they are admired. But the news that T-Mobile USA, the wireless telecommunications company, plans to open a major call center in Oakland’s FirstPark is positive for the Waterville region and further evidence that the governor’s Pine Tree Zones can have a meaningful effect on business in Maine.

Maine has been competing since April with other states to attract T-Mobile and could eventually spend in taxes a couple of million dollars to get the company to FirstPark, where it is expected to eventually hire as many as 700 people, at a median salary of $35,000 plus benefits, including health care. But the advantages far outweigh that cost and, in any event, these are the stakes in attracting businesses, when all states are eager to bring decent, low-polluting jobs to their residents. That Maine can compete at all shows that progress in economic development has been made at the state level over the last decade, and Gov. Baldacci can properly claim credit for moving it forward.

Maine currently has about 8,400 people employed in call centers, down a bit from a 1999 peak of 9,000. In 2000, those jobs had a payroll of about $55 million. Dr. James McConnon, an economist at the University of Maine, explains that Maine can be a desirable place for call-center owners, in part because “we’ve lost a tremendous number of manufacturing jobs and we have pretty skilled people from those positions.”

A company that comes to Maine with wages of the level offered by T-Mobile will find workers of a quality the same wages may not attract elsewhere. That is, of course, both good and bad overall; for those in the Waterville region looking for work, it is just very good.

Dr. McConnon adds that in addition to the level of support from state government, worker quality and the number of available workers here, a company would look into Maine’s telecommunications infrastructure, which is superior in several respects. He notes there are also intangibles, factors that are hard to quantify, such as the recognition that Maine is a great place to raise a family.

T-Mobile of Bellevue, Wash., reports that next spring it will begin hiring customer-service representatives in groups of 90 at a time. They will be trained and set up, it says in its announcement, with “the latest telecommunications tools and customer service technology” and work at a call center that offers “an on-site workout facility, cyber caf?, television lounge and on-site deli.”

A concern about other call-center jobs is that they are neither very good nor long lasting. T-Mobile, on the other hand, seems committed to being in the other camp, offering decent pay and working conditions in exchange for worker stability and quality. Globalization means that any call center could pack up and move to another state or another country in a matter of weeks. That is a condition of the working world these days.

The Baldacci administration, however, should be acknowledged for offering a strong package of incentives, and Maine overall should be pleased that the value of its work force is recognized by companies that could go anywhere.

Now, if only the Red Sox can repeat as champions.