U.S. Cellular will dismiss 160 employees at its Tulsa call center in the next nine months and close its Tulsa Financial Services Center.

The jobs are moving to a call center in Madison, Wis., and to a contract partner in Houston.

The Chicago cell phone service provider confirmed the layoffs Wednesday after submitting a notice to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.

“The company has made the strategic business decision to transition the credit and collection responsibilities of its Tulsa Financial Services Center to … Madison, Wis., and … Houston,” U.S. Cellular said in a statement Wednesday.

It cited lower costs as the reason for the changes.

The Financial Services Center is part of a larger U.S. Cellular complex with about 400 employees in eastern Tulsa.

The company will use the space to add 100 new jobs to its Tulsa Customer Care Center.

The fired employees will be eligible for those jobs, but they will have to reapply for the positions.

U.S. Cellular is offering a severance package of eight weeks pay and extended COBRA coverage to any employees who choose to stick around until the job cuts start next March.

The company will begin moving the positions this summer.

When finished, the changes will reduce employment at the Tulsa center to about 350 workers from about 400.