They do claim to be hi-tech and with tons of work stations but I saw a photo once taken in India showing a back alley hi-tech sweat shop operation of one of these BPO companies. It was no more than a hallway lined with computers and filled with hapless Indians working for about $6 a day according to the article. The people in the "office" were so crowded, some were sitting on the edges of computer tables and there was barely room for anyone to pass behind them.

Jan Forster, a SOT subscriber, has befrieded a fellow in India and he has read her some of the classified ads for title searhcers over there. The company often provides a computer and internet access to an impoverished home or sets them up in an internet cafe. This might explain the background noise we often here when these people call us.