A British Telecom customer call centre set up two years ago in Limerick will close at the end of October with a loss of up to 150 jobs. Employees at BT Cellnet Lumina were given the news at a meeting yesterday.

Mr Paul Ramwell, customer service director, attributed the decision to a substantial change in market trends. It follows the recent closure of a similar call centre in Scotland.

He said all employees would be given the opportunity to be considered for roles within the wider BT group but warned that phased redundancies were probably necessary.