"As the governor mentioned, adversity brings forth strength, and this will be a piece in the puzzle that will re-establish some additional strength in our community, so I think it's a wonderful opportunity," he said.

"One job is a tremendous positive gain, and a hundred jobs in our landscape is definitely not marginal. It's a wonderful position to find ourselves in. A hundred jobs on the Wasatch Front would not be significant, but in rural Utah, it is a significant improvement."

The SIPRelay call center will be in the former Utah Division of Wildlife space. The permanent facility will be a leased, 9,500-square-foot building at 600 W. 200 South.

Full-time employees earn $9 per hour, with full benefits and paid vacation. Details about the jobs can be found at www.sorenson.com/company/jobs.php#SIPRelay.

Through SIPRelay, a deaf or hard-of-hearing person uses a PC or mobile device to send a text message to a call center. An assistant at the center then calls a hearing individual and reads the message aloud. The hearing person replies verbally and the assistant relays the response back to the deaf or hard-of-hearing person through a text message.

More information about the relay service is at www.siprelay.com.

The service is provided free to users and funded by part of a federal surcharge on telephone bills that is less than 10 cents per month.

Sorenson Communications provides several services and products, including the Sorenson Video Relay Service, a video interpreting service; Sorenson videophones; the SIPRelay; and Sorenson Video Remote Interpreting, a fee-based remote interpreting service.

Sorenson has more than 300 employees at its only current SIPRelay center, which is in Salt Lake City. The company began five-and-a-half years ago with 35 employees, all in Utah. It now has about 3,500 workers, including more than 500 in Utah.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com