Pope creates call centre for pilgrims

The Vatican has opened a call centre to deal with the influx of queries from pilgrims visiting Rome during the Catholic church's Holy Year celebrations.

Telcos Alcatel and Telecom Italia have been retained by the Holy See to build a contact centre offering information to the 20 million Catholics expected to visit during the 13 month celebration period that runs until 4 June 2001.

Pilgrims can access information covering times of mass, prayer groups, celebrations of the Holy Sacraments in addition to information on train timetables.

Alcatel's OmniTouch voice response technology was chosen for its intelligent call routing to disseminate data.

Information is available to visitors in German, Italian, French, Spanish and English.