Metro One Telecommunications

Metro One Telecommunications, Inc. (NASDAQ:INFO) was a provider of directory assistance with call centers located in the United States. Corporate headquarters were located in Beaverton, Oregon.

At its height Metro One served the 411 information needs of most major cell phone providers including AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, Verizon, and many others from its 35 U.S. call centers. One of its unique appeals was the high degree of localization the distributed call center system offered. It was a big growth story in its day, continuing to grow explosively even during the recession of the early 2000s. Its main challenge for much of its existence was keeping up with the demand, both technically and operationally.

Metro One made an effort to ween itself off its big clients with a very high-touch direct to consumer 411 service called Infone (and other efforts), however the sales effort was unsuccessful; it was unable to convert its national media advertising strategy to customers in large enough numbers. Infone offered concierge services of all kinds in addition to the classic phone information services. Infone was discontinued in December 2005.

At its peak, Metro One employed over 7,000 across the country. In January 2009, the company sold its last operating business and had a total of three employees.