MCI is closing sales and customer service call centers in Alpharetta, Ga., Hunt Valley, Md., and Iowa City, Iowa, on September 30, 2005, laying off 1,000 employees.

Workers at the three centers were notified of the closures on July 29 in accordance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires affected employees to receive 60 days notice of a layoff.

The center in Alpharetta primarily employed telemarketers. The Hunt Valley center also primarily employed telemarketers, though some employees there worked with MCI’s marketing partners. MCI has recently ended its marketing partnerships with Blockbuster and Northwest Airlines. The Iowa City center primarily employed premier customer service and order processing representatives. Aside from telemarketing, the functions performed by these centers have been moved to other centers in the U.S., the Philippines and India.

The closures come at a time when MCI is focusing more on its commercial and enterprise customers in preparation for its merger with Verizon. “By reducing our call center presence we are streamlining our operations, while continuing to place our primary focus on the enterprise segment of our industry,” MCI said in a prepared statement.

This doesn’t seem to be a good time to be a residential customer of MCI.

See also local media coverage in Alpharetta, Hunt Valley and Iowa City.