Aliant Mobility has hung up on Bell Aliant customer service workers in the Atlantic region.

About 330 Bell Aliant employees who take customer calls for Aliant Mobility in this region won’t be doing so after April 2008, a Bell Aliant spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

"No permanent (Bell Aliant) employees are going to lose their jobs over it," Brenda Reid said.

"They’ll be still working on customer calls. Their work will just be different. They won’t be taking mobility calls anymore, but they will be working in other customer service functions."

Bell Mobility, which is Bell Canada’s wireless division, took over Aliant Mobility in June 2006 when Aliant Inc. changed from a corporation to the Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund. Bell Canada is Bell Aliant’s parent company.

Bell Mobility is moving toward operating customer care on a national basis and will stop outsourcing customer care for its wireless customers in the Atlantic region to Bell Aliant, says a Bell Aliant e-mail sent Thursday to affected employees.

"Bell has decided they will reroute those calls to a new vendor beginning in April 2008," Ms. Reid said Friday

As well, Bell Mobility is expected to shed the Aliant Mobility name.

"That’s my understanding," Ms. Reid said.

A Bell Canada spokesman in Toronto could not be reached for comment by deadline Friday...

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