Virgin Media's plan to put off support line callers with a premium line phone rate seems to have worked.

Unluckily for 90 workers at IBM's call centre, who handle Virgins calls, it means that they will no longer have a job. Support was outsource by Virgin in 2006 as a way of cost cutting after the merger of NTL and Telewest.

Whether the reduction is due to less calls due to customers not calling the helpline or just them deciding to hop ship to another provider will tell in time.