Telefonica branch expands activities in Morocco, newspaper

"Atento," branch of the Spanish company Telefonica, will expand its activities in Morocco to enlarge its geographic coverage, said Thursday the French economic "La Tribune" daily.

This subsidiary was set up in Morocco in 2000 to accompany the second telephone company in the kingdom "Meditel," said the newspaper adding that Atento, with two offices in Casablanca (650 employees) and Tangier (500), has won 45 percent of the Moroccan market.

According to the newspaper, Atento Maroc achieved a turnover of 12 mln Euros in 2003 and handled 41 million calls with a staff of 1200.

Moroccan operators at Atento are trained to know about the products and services of the companies they will work with and to deal with clients calls.

The same source added that these centres target mainly French-speaking markets for which they offer telemarketing and technical assistance.

Officer of French market operations, Hicham Chiguer, said that BA holders in law, economy or literature find jobs at call centres without being trained in this domain.

Casablanca Atento offers services to various economic companies. Its first customer is Meditel which assists its mobile phone customers in three languages.

Atento, in which Telefonica holds 81pc of shares, offers its services for other companies such as Thomson Telecom, BMCE, Shell Gaz and General Administration of Traffic in Spain, said the newspaper.