Kansas City, Mo ? International Business Machines Corp. will take over much of Sprint Corp.’s customer services operations, Sprint confirmed Wednesday.

The five-year agreement calls for IBM to manage 21 Sprint call centers already owned and operated by outside contractors, as well as a Sprint-owned call center in Nashville, Tenn.

In addition, a Dallas center serving Sprint long-distance customers will be consolidated into a center in Fort Worth, Texas. Sprint will continue to operate its seven other customer service centers.

No jobs are expected to be lost as part of the outsourcing deal. However, the 300 workers at the Dallas facility may lose their jobs if they cannot relocate to Fort Worth or another call center, a Sprint spokeswoman said.

The IBM deal also calls for the computer company to sell its customers Sprint phone and data services, and for Sprint to pay nearly $100 million to deploy an IBM technology that enables customers to transfer desktop computer applications to a mobile device.

No other financial terms of the agreement were disclosed.

Separately, at a meeting with investors in New York, Sprint also raised its earnings forecast for 2004 and 2005.

Sprint, based in Overland Park, estimated the IBM arrangement would reduce its customer service costs by $550 million during the next three years. Bob Dellinger, Sprint’s chief financial officer, said the deal and other recent cost-cutting measures would save the company $500 million per year.

The 4,500 workers at the 21 vendor-operated centers won’t be changing employers, but will be under new management, said Angie Makkyla, a Sprint spokeswoman. The 1,100 employees in Nashville will now be employed by a subcontractor of IBM, Convergys Corp.

Sprint President Len Lauer said the company hoped to improve customer satisfaction and wanted an experienced partner who could help redesign Sprint’s customer service centers.

IBM Business Consulting Services has announced similar initiatives with Sprint cell phone rival Nextel Communications as well as major corporations including Procter & Gamble, Raytheon, and United Technologies.

Gary Forsee, chairman and chief executive of Sprint, said the deal represented “a major collaboration between Sprint and IBM, allowing Sprint to simultaneously move forward on our top priorities: improving customer satisfaction, driving new sources of revenue and operating our business more efficiently and with greater flexibility.”

Meanwhile, Dellinger also revised the company’s earnings forecast.

The wireless business, Sprint PCS, expects an operating loss of between 13 and 18 cents per share in 2004. But in 2005, the business is expected to turn profitable with earnings within a range of 20 cents to 30 cents per share.

The wireline division, Sprint FON, expects an operating profit of between $1.37 and $1.42 a share, excluding higher pension and stock compensation costs of about 7 cents per share. In 2005, earnings are expected to grow by a high single-digit to low double-digit percentage.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call expected Sprint PCS to show a loss of 21 cents per share this year and a profit of 12 cents a share in 2005. They expected Sprint FON to earn $1.37 a share for this year and $1.31 a share in 2005.

In Wednesday’s stock trading, Sprint PCS shares rose 43 cents to close at $8.56, while Sprint FON shares fell 88 cents to close at $17.07.

Forsee said that while the company continued to face challenges related to competition, pricing, regulation and technology, he senses “an underlying momentum at Sprint,” driven by an improving economy and an improving financial performance.

“I believe we’ve turned the corner,” he said.

Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said Sprint was forecasting “a moderate uptick” in its financial performance.

“I think they’re accurately reflecting the sentiment of the industry, the mood of the industry, which is: The worst is over; We’re starting to see forward momentum,” Kagan said.