Call centre markets of India and the Philippines are set to see further boom through 2009, a study says.

The report, 'The Future of Contact Centre Outsourcing in India and the Philippines', published by Datamonitor, an American analyst firm, predicts that over 250,000 new call centre agent positions will be created in two countries by 2009, and the Philippines will be poaching the market increasingly, which India currently dominates.

The United States and the United Kingdom are the biggest clients in the call centre industry. According to Datamonitor, both India and the Philippines will see substantial growth in call centres.

With the US presidential elections out of the way, US businesses will now be able to ramp up their offshore operations, via call centres, the report also said.

More firms are set to follow the likes of British Airways, Citibank, General Electric and HSBC, all of which have spun off a part or all of their operations to India.

"Outsourcing providers are competing to run entire customer processes for their clients, rather than merely the voice-based call centre part," said Ryan Powell, call centre analyst at Datamonitor and author of the study.