Orange/T-Mobile mum on 2,500 job cuts

Newly merged wireless carrier Orange/T-Mobile UK launched a high-profile campaign to promote the company's new, albeit bizarre, rebranding to Everything, Everywhere.  The rebranding appears to be overshadowing the fact that Orange and T-Mobile UK have cut more than 2,500 jobs since the merger took place seven months ago.

Everything, Everywhere (E2) is touting the merged company's subscriber base of more than 30 million customers, and its plans to increase the number of retail outlets from over 700 to nearly 800. Nevertheless, Tom Alexander, CEO of E2 admits that both the Orange and T-Mobile brands will be retained for the foreseeable future.

How these brands will work in the marketplace is presently unclear, apart from Alexander's claim that "what I wanted was a company name that did not distract or confuse from two very strong brands. What I wanted was something that was additive. I love Everything Everywhere because it really does encapsulate the vision and the ambition for the company."

But the newly merged company has significantly reduced its workforce. E2 has cut its combined workforce from 19,000 to 16,522, and apparently plans to cut more management, IT and back office staff.  Alexander said that staff reductions occurred because there were duplications in jobs as a result of merging Orange and T-Mobile. "But, most of the people are very much in the frontline supporting our customers," he added. "So, don't expect mass redundancies, because they won't happen."

These job cuts are part of E2's efforts to reduce costs by around £3.5 billion by 2014 through sharing mobile phone masts, technology and staff reductions.

For more on this story:
- read the article at the Daily Telegraph

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