Back to press releasesNewark, NJ & San Juan, Puerto Rico – October 23, 2002 – IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT.B, IDT), a leading multinational carrier and telecommunications company, announced the expansion of its Puerto Rico Customer Service Center. The IDT Puerto Rico division and the service center were established two years ago to handle Spanish-language calls from Hispanic customers on the US mainland. IDT Puerto Rico & Company plans to double the center’s capacity and create 120 additional jobs on the Island.
The expansion will enable IDT’s Puerto Rico Customer Service Center to handle as much as 95 percent of all customer service calls originating from the U.S. and South America. The company will now process more than 11,000 daily transactions through its local call center—a 51% increase from the current amount of transactions. Customer Service Center personnel provide general orientation, answer usage and billing questions on more than 200 types of calling cards and other products and services.
“When we established our Customer Service Center in Rio Piedras two years ago, our goal was to provide service to our Spanish-speaking retail card customers in the U.S. In two short years the operation has grown to handle most of all US and South America calls,” said James Courter, Vice Chairman and CEO of IDT Corporation. “Much of the credit for our success goes to the hard work of our employees on the island. In fact it was the highly educated, bilingual and high quality workforce that initially attracted us to Puerto Rico.”
“We envision a strong and lasting relationship with Puerto Rico,” said Doug Mauro, President of IDT Puerto Rico & Company. “The cooperation we have received from the local government, the productivity and dedication to quality of our local team and the opportunities for growth have all been very positive and could lead to further expansion in Puerto Rico in the future.”
IDT first established offices and a call center in Puerto Rico in July of 2000. In two years, IDT’s operation in Puerto Rico grew from 20 employees to 115 and now handles more than 150,000 calls monthly, which is 44% of all of IDT’s customer service calls for South America and the U.S.
About IDT
IDT, through its IDT Telecom subsidiary, is a leading facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to its retail and wholesale customers worldwide. Through its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, IDT Telecom provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. IDT and Liberty Media own 95% and 5 % of IDT Telecom, respectively. IDT Media is the IDT subsidiary principally responsible for the Company’s initiatives in media, new video technologies and print media.
Through its various subsidiaries, IDT has interests in several telecom, Internet-related and media companies. IDT acquired Winstar Communications in December 2001. IDT Corporation common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols IDT.B and IDT. As of June 10, 2002, there were 53.4 million shares of Class B common stock (IDT.B) outstanding, and 24.9 million shares of common stock (IDT). Of these, 4.0 million shares of Class B common stock and 5.4 million shares of common stock were held by units of IDT Corporation.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and Assumptions contained in the foregoing are forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, involving risks and uncertainties. These statements refer to our plans to implement our growth strategy, improve our financial performance, expand our infrastructure, develop new products and services, expand our customer base and enter international markets. The forward-looking statements also include our expectations concerning factors affecting the markets for our products, including the demand for long distance telecommunications, and Internet access services. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results that we anticipate. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those risks discussed in this release. In addition to the factors specifically noted in the forward looking statements, other important factors that could result in those differences include (a) general economic conditions in the telecommunications and Internet markets, including inflation, recession, interest rates, and other economic factors; (b) casualty to or other disruption of our facilities and operations; (c) those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10K for the period ended July 31, 2001 and (d) other factors that generally affect the business of telecommunications, Internet and other communications companies. We assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward-looking statements.
