Boy, I guess I'm the only tech-weenie on this thread.....the original poster mentioned those darn satellites....I can assure you that call centers in India (for reputable American clients) do not use satellites for thier calls, except as a "back-up for the back-up". The problem that makes the calls so bad is pooly implemented Voice Over Intenet Protocol. VoIP is the primary technology used to get the calls to and from India (and other overseas call centers) as cheaply as possible, it's just that some of the operators try to squeeze too many calls over too little bandwidth or just don't know what they're doing.

I've had some calls where the "accent" problem paled in comparison to the really, really bad connections....echos, background hiss, volume so low you thought you were calling Mars. I guess working in Intl. Telecoms (both satellite and "terrestrial') has made me more "tolerant" of foreign accents and considerably less tolerant of bad telecoms connections!