Recent news-flow suggests that the telecoms sector is set to experience a raft of job cuts, as companies seek to reduce debt and costs and boost revenues.
NTL Cable company, NTL, has cut its workforce from 23,200 in October last year to 18,500 in October 2001. Further cuts are planned to take the headcount down to 15,000 by October next year. At the same time the company is hoping to increase its average revenue per user (ARPU) from £39 this year to £46 by the end of 2002 and to £50 by the end of 2003.
NTL is hoping that the first raft of these measures will help it to meet 80% of its cashflow targets for the next year. The company currently has a debt-burden of £12 billion.
Vodafone Mobile phone operator, Vodafone, is also reported to be on the verge of making its first set of job cuts. The company is understood to planning up to 1,000 job losses in order to increase revenues and reduce costs.
Vodafone has spent much of the past year on an acquisition spree, including the purchase of German group telecom giant Mannesmann. It is now thought to be concentrating on building revenues and reducing costs, rather than growing its business through acquisition.
Orange Meanwhile, subscriber growth at Orange slowed in the third quarter of this year, according to recent figures from the mobile phone operator. In Q3 2001, Orange’s UK business signed up 320,000 new customers, down from the 830,000 it added in Q2, although still a 47% year on year increase.
However, the proportion of pre-paid customers accounting for the growth in Q3 was just 32%, down from 73% in Q2 and 93% in Q1. This follows a decision by Orange (and most other operators) to end the subsidies of cheap or free phone units for pre-paid customers.
