Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider, said it is eliminating up to 8,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, under a plan to cut annual costs by $1.2 billion.
The Overland Park, Kan.-based company said it will complete the layoffs by March 31. About 850 of the reductions are voluntary.
Sprint will take a charge of more than $300 million in the first quarter for severance and related costs associated with the reduction. In addition, it said it would suspend its 401(k) match for the year, extending a freeze on salary increases and is suspending a tuition reimbursement program.
Sprint's plan, which it hopes will shrink costs by about $1.2 billion a year, comes about one month after rival AT&T said it would eliminate 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of its staff.
Sprint is still deciding where the job cuts will come from but said it will likely avoid significant reductions in its customer service and network quality divisions, where it has focused on improvement in recent years.
"We continue to improve the customer experience and these improvements are reflected in much higher levels of satisfaction in customer surveys and in independent performance tests," said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. "Our commitment to quality will not change."
The company will review its internal operations to see if there are functions it would consider outsourcing in the future.
