Verizon lays off 80 workers, many in Arkansas

Verizon Wireless laid off 80 workers. The majority of those workers--50--are former Alltel employees in Arkansas. Verizon acquired Alltel in January and the Arkansas layoffs are part of the company's elimination of redundant jobs across its corporate staff, Verizon spokesman Scott Morris told the Associated Press.

The workers were notified of the layoffs Thursday, and their last day will be 30 days from now. Morris said that Verizon still has about 3,200 employees in Arkansas.

Verizon has spent the past few months integrating Alltel's network, switching over billing systems, upgrading wireless broadband service and re-merchandising stores. Verizon's acquisition of Alltel made it the nation's largest wireless carrier in terms of total subscribers, with more than 80 million.

As a condition of the acquisition, Verizon agreed to divest 105 markets where its service overlapped with Alltel's. AT&T said in early May it would buy a large portion of the assets for $2.35 billion.

For more:
- see this article [1]

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