By Jeremy Peppas
Stephens Media

NORTH LITTLE ROCK — The transition from Alltel to Verizon is still on track, Verizon officials said Tuesday as they watched as crews worked to complete a branding change at the most prominent of venues — Alltel Arena.

Workers are expected to finish replacing the Alltel signage with Verizon logos today.

“It was important for us to do it as quickly as possible,” said Steve Smith, president of the south central region with Verizon Wireless. “It was also important that we did it right. We wanted to make sure it was done prior to all our branding conversions inside all the stores.”

July 25 is the target date to get all the work done inside the arena, the day the American Idol concert series comes to North Little Rock.

Meanwhile, Verizon is continuing to evaluate staffing requirements following its $28.1 billion purchase of Alltel Corp., officials said.

The company has completed two rounds of layoffs this year, including more than 200 in Little Rock, where Verizon will maintain a regional headquarters.

However, it is looking to hire workers for an expanded call center at the former Alltel campus.

The call center here is going to 1,200 people, so that’s an increase in jobs,“ said Lucie Pathmann, a public relations manager with Verizon and an Alltel holdover. The call center did employ 800.

“There will be redundancies, but as of right now, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Pathmann said. “So there are still a lot of people here.”

Pathmann said the regional headquarters would employ at least 100 people. Other former Alltel employees were still with the company.

“Verizon Wireless has been very good at looking at the employee base here in Little Rock and looking at opportunities for them elsewhere,” Pathmann said, adding that several employees were leaving Arkansas to work at Verizon headquarters in New Jersey.