A company that hopes to hire 120 people to work with DirecTV was warmly welcomed to Watertown at a press conference Thursday.

Sitting behind a table draped with the company logo, N.E.W. Customer Service Companies Inc. officials formally announced that the city had been selected as the newest virtual call center location.

The event was held at Jefferson Community College, where the company will create a training center for the new employees for home-based positions.

While plans call for 120 new hires, company officials said they would continue hiring beyond that threshold if qualified applicants are available.

Local economic development officials, many of whom have been working with N.E.W. for the past year, hailed home-based jobs as a way to engage a work force of military spouses and disabled residents.

Donald C. Alexander, a member of the Jefferson County Job Development Corp.'s economic rapid response team, which worked with the company, said, "This has so much more enormous potential beyond the 120 jobs we're talking about. It's an absolutely perfect regional fit."

Ray J. Zukowski, senior vice president for customer experience at N.E.W., said the company had looked at 200 initial sites, and 11 finalists, before selecting Watertown for the virtual call center.

Mr. Zukowski, who declined to name the other cities, said Watertown was chosen for its "well-educated and motivated work force." He said a warm reception from economic development officials also helped secure the site for the company.

"We've been so impressed with the initial experience in Watertown, the community and the experience in New York, that the decision to launch a new work-at-home training site was made easy for us," he said.

Jefferson Community College offered the use of a classroom for employee training sessions; the Empire State Development Office offered N.E.W. a $50,000 grant to defray the costs of telecommunications, renting the classroom space and wages during training periods.

Douglas B. Schelleng, Empire State Development Corp. economic development program administrator, said the grant "closed the deal."

"They were looking at other jurisdictions," he said. "It's an incentive for them to do it here."

Economic development officials were careful to stress that the Dulles, Va.-based company was not a fly-by-night operation.

"This is not a company you'll find with a poster slapped up on a local telephone pole," Mr. Alexander said. "It has regional appeal and is so well-suited to what we do up here."

Founded in 1983, N.E.W. started as a series of brick and mortar call centers, with employees answering questions about extended service plans, buyer protection services and product support programs for clients such as Wal-Mart and Sears. The company initials stand for National Electronics Warranty.

In the next 12 to 18 months, N.E.W. plans to add five new work-at-home locations and three brick-and-mortar sites in locations that have yet to be determined, Mr. Zukowski said.

In Watertown, employees will go through six-week training sessions, where they will be taught how to answer questions about five different operating systems of DirecTV.

After the training sessions, employees will work from home at a rate of $10 per hour.

Since the company is not limited by space, Mr. Zukowski said, N.E.W. would continue hiring until the company was unable to find 20 people for a training session.

"We're not going to turn away people," he said. "If they're qualified and have a skill set, we absolutely will hire them."

Kendra D. Scott, recruiting project manager for N.E.W., said training sessions will start April 1 and will continue over the course of the year. The company already has accepted 18 applications through its Web site, she said.

The company requires that potential employees have high-speed Internet, a basic technical aptitude for electronics and at least one year of experience in customer service, retail or a call center.

One of the requirements of working at home is that the work area be free from distractions and noise, so the jobs are unlikely to appeal to stay-at-home parents looking to avoid day care.

Wil P. Hansen, whose consulting firm works to connect businesses and disabled workers, said the work-at-home positions were a perfect fit for people who found it difficult to commute to a job. Mr. Hansen also was a member of the rapid response team.

"This opens up so many opportunities to people with disabilities," he said. "This is the kind of project I love to work. It's going to be good for a lot of people."

As he was speaking, Mr. Zukowski emerged from the Sturtz Auditorium and the two men shook hands.

"Welcome to Watertown!" Mr. Hansen said.