Having cut 2,500 jobs earlier this year, the CEO of Everything Everywhere, Tom Alexander, has announced a further 1,500 staff will have to go to ensure that the company is 'operating with maximum efficiency'.
Everything Everywhere, which continues to trade under both the Orange UK and T-Mobile UK brands, said the job losses would equate to about 7.5 per cent of the company's 16,000 staff.
While the previous cuts had largely taken place within T-Mobile UK, this time the majority of redundancies would be spread across head office locations in London, Hatfield and Bristol. The aim this time around is to reduce middle management numbers and those employed in back-office roles, with the job losses to take place before Christmas.
The company stressed that frontline staff in high street retail outlets and call centres would not be affected. The JV has already cut 30 senior management roles since the company was officially created in July.
Alexander, who reported an 18.5 per cent drop in second quarter EBITDA to £309 million last week, said that the JV needed to ensure that it was operating with maximum efficiency, "effectively serving our two brands while removing any unnecessary duplication from the business. It is therefore regrettable that some roles will need to be removed from our combined business."
Regardless of these job cuts, the company has said that it aims to confirm the suppliers of new network infrastructure equipment by the end of this year. Emin Gurdenli, Everything Everywhere's VP of networks, also stated that LTE was a key criteria in its selection process. "We will take the opportunity to make sure that LTE capability is already built into any new equipment we buy, whether it's for the purpose of 2G modernisation or 3G integration... LTE is on the roadmap."
This move, which is part of the JV's network integration programme, aims to streamline equipment supplier relationships and looks to renegotiate terms with managed services providers. The company is hoping that these actions could help contribute towards its aim of reducing operating costs by £466 million per year by 2014. The JV is also targeting a reduction of £200 million in Capex over a five-year period.
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