ntl have announced today that over the next 18 months the company is to consolidate its 13 call centres into three state-of-the-art ones equipped for future growth.

Call centres in Manchester, Swansea and Bellshill (Glasgow) will be retained and developed and are to be supported by four sales and customer support sites in Nottingham, Teesside, Luton and Coventry.

Additional investments in technology and training will be made to improve customer service and drive business efficiency but as a result of the plans up to 1,500 job losses will take place.

ntl hopes to achieve as much of the job cuts as possible through natural turnover in the Company's workforce.

The cable operator's CEO, Simon Duffy, said about the news: "ntl has made good progress in improving its customer service, but we still have some way to go. The consolidation of our call centres and investment in leading-edge technology is a critical step on our path to greatly improved service for our customers."