BRITISH Telecom (BT) said yesterday it would close many of its smaller call centres across the UK over the next year with the the probable loss of more than 2000 jobs, but there would be no compulsory redundancies.

The move forms part of a plan to streamline and modernise the call centre operations of its BT Retail division as part of a wider drive to slash costs in the group by (pounds) 650m.

BT Retail employs about 16,000 people at 150 call centres throughout Britain. These handle everything from 999 emergency calls to routine billing enquiries.

BT Retail has 23 call centres in Scotland employing some 3000 people. Nearly half of these are based at seven call centres in Glasgow. There are also large operations in Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness.

Last month, BT announced the closure of an international direct-ory enquiries centre at Irvine in Ayrshire with the loss of 100 jobs.

The company said that while it planned to close many of its smaller sites, some of which have less than 100 employees, it would invest (pounds) 100m upgrading those that remain to make them more flexible and efficient.

Details of the cuts will be announced by the end of March.

BT did not say exactly how many call centre jobs would be lost, but company sources said about 1000 would go this year and possibly more in 2003. The reduction forms part of plans

to cut 13,000 jobs which BT announced last year.