Carbonite, a leading provider of online backup, and Governor Paul LePage announced on Tuesday the opening of a new customer support center in Lewiston that is expected to employ 150 skilled workers by the end of this year. Carbonite ultimately expects to employ more than 250 people in Lewiston.

The company has operated a customer-service call center in India for the past five years. But with a firm commitment to providing excellent customer service, Carbonite decided to “repatriate” those jobs back to the U.S.

Based in Boston, the company chose Lewiston for its proximity to headquarters, affordable commercial space, high-tech infrastructure and a ready supply of computer savvy workers. With several colleges in the area churning out students in the technology field, Carbonite sees the potential for its future workforce.

“Great customer support is just as important as a great product,” said David Friend, CEO of Carbonite. “When customers experience data disasters and need to restore everything from Carbonite, they often just want someone who can hold their hands through the process. It’s a tense moment and in many cases we have the only remaining copy of their files. So we want the most considerate, competent and efficient representatives possible, and we want them empowered by the best support technology available.

“When we do a good job solving a customers’ problem, we make a friend for life, so we are making an investment in U.S.-based representatives and believe this is the best way to serve the needs of our customers,” Friend said. “Maine just seemed like the perfect place for us, and we are anxious to get the new center up and running.”

“This is an exciting day for Maine,” said Governor LePage. “We like to say that ‘Maine is open for business,’ and the fact that an innovative, fast-growing company like Carbonite has chosen to locate here demonstrates that we are serious about making this a business-friendly state.”

LePage was joined at a news conference at The Chamber of Commerce in Lewiston by Friend and Matt Jacobson, CEO of Maine & Company, which played a key role in attracting Carbonite to Maine.

“The skilled technology jobs at Carbonite are the jobs of the future, and we look forward to helping this great company grow here in Maine,” said Jacobson. “Maine & Company is excited Carbonite has chosen our state for a facility that is so important to the company’s continued success. This is a company that people are proud to work for, and any state in America would be thrilled to have them.”

Friend emphasized on Wednesday that the company chose Maine for its lack of bureaucracy that could hinder the ability of the company to set up shop here. “Our application just sailed through,” Friend said on the 560 WGAN News Radio morning show. He credited the governor and Maine & Company for guiding the business though the application process with no hurdles. “They said if there’s a problem, we’ll fix it—and they did,” Friend said. “They just pulled every obstacle out of the way.”

LePage said that attracting Carbonite to Lewiston demonstrates what a small, private-sector, non-profit organization like Maine & Company can do. The governor said Carbonite is just one of the many job-creating companies that will be coming to Maine in the next three years.

LePage said he has proposed a state budget that is business friendly. “I, as governor, cannot create jobs,” he said. “But I can create a business-friendly economic climate” that will attract job-creating companies. “My first priority is to bring jobs to Maine,” LePage said.

Carbonite officials said that the average salary with benefits would be around $35,000. Managers could make $45,000 to $50,000 and directors would make more. The customer support center provides a training ground for future managers and directors.

In 2010,Carbonite was ranked as the ninth fastest-growing private company and the fastest growing IT services company by Inc. Magazine in its prestigious Inc. 500 list. The company has been named as one of Boston Business Journal’s “Best Places to Work” for the past two years and earned Privately Held Company of the Year honors from the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council in 2010.

Carbonite will open its Lewiston customer support center this summer. For more information, or to apply for a position, please email MaineHiring@carbonite.com.

Carbonite is a leading provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small businesses. More than 1 million subscribers in over 100 countries rely on Carbonite to provide easy-to-use, affordable, unlimited and secure online backup solutions with anytime, anywhere data access.

Carbonite’s online backup solution runs on both the Windows and Mac platforms. The company has backed up more than 100 billion files, restored more than 7 billion files and currently backs up more than 200 million files each day.

For more information, please visit www.carbonite.com, twitter.com/carbonite or facebook.com/CarboniteOnlineBackup.