Pacific Bell’s Bilingual Capabilities

Your June 1 story on the Latino Issue Forum’s telecommunications seminar was very interesting. I’m afraid, though, that it may have led readers to believe that telephone companies cannot meet the needs of customers who speak languages other than English.

Pacific Bell has created and expanded service centers for customers who speak Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean. Today, approximately 650 bilingual service representatives work in 11 centers serving customers statewide. Almost half of these customers order Lifeline, Pacific Bell’s special telephone service for low-income households.

Pacific Bell also employs 92 bilingual operators in Santa Ana who serve 14,000 Spanish-speaking customers statewide seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

As California’s demographics change and its residents’ needs diversify, our goal is to make it easier to do business with Pacific Bell by speaking, listening and writing to customers in a variety of languages.

RONALD F. DEL PRINCIPE, Area Vice President, Pacific Bell, Orange