T-Mobile USA plans to build a $16 million call center in Chattanooga designed to create over 700 new jobs when fully staffed.

The T-Mobile Customer Service Center will take its first call in the summer of 2006.

The facility will be at the northeast corner of the intersection of Highway 153 and Lee Highway.

"Our Customer Service employees play a vital role in our company's success," said Tom Sugrue, vice president of government affairs for T-Mobile USA, Inc. "That's why we’re coming back to Tennessee. The culture and residents of Tennessee are very much service oriented, which is a perfect match with T-Mobile's values. This has been reinforced with our success in Nashville and our interactions with state and local government officials throughout the site selection process for Chattanooga."

T-Mobile operates a customer service center in Nashville, with more than 850 employees. The company opened the Nashville center in 2001.

Based in Bellevue, Wash., the U.S. operations of T-Mobile International AG & Co. K.G., consist of T-Mobile USA, Inc. (formerly VoiceStream Wireless) and Powertel, Inc. (together "T-Mobile"). T-Mobile is one of the fastest growing nationwide wireless service providers, offering all digital voice, messaging and high-speed wireless data services to more than 18.2 million customers in the United States.

A cornerstone of T-Mobile's strong consumer appeal has been its Get More® business strategy to provide customers with the best overall value in their wireless service so they can enjoy the benefits of mobile communications to Get more from life®, officials said.

T-Mobile has more than 25,000 employees across the country "dedicated to delivering on its Get More® promise to provide customers with more minutes, more features and more service."

T-Mobile International is the first mobile communications company to offer service on both sides of the Atlantic with a single global brand name and a single digital technology standard, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), offering customers the advantage of using their wireless services when traveling worldwide.

The T-Mobile global brand name made its debut in the United States in July 2002, choosing California and Nevada as the first markets in the country to launch its wireless voice and data services. The company successfully transitioned its VoiceStream Wireless brand in its remaining markets in September 2002 and now operates the largest GSM/GPRS 1900 MHz voice and data network in the country in 46 of the top 50 U.S. markets, reaching 254 million people including roaming and other agreements exclusively under the T-Mobile brand name. T-Mobile and its affiliates own licenses to provide service to 95 percent of the U.S. population.

Internationally acclaimed actress and Academy Award® winner Catherine Zeta-Jones serves as T-Mobile's spokeswoman.