JOB CUTS BECOMING A HABIT AMONG EUROPEAN TELECOMS OPERATORS.

When France Telecom cut 17.000 jobs it was not an isolated case: whether it be by wholesale restructuring operations or massive social plans, big European telephony operators, generally ex monopolies, continue to skim their staff in the face of stiff competition.

Spanish Telefonica will have cut 15,000 jobs between 2004 and 2007, by 2010, there will be 8,000 job losses at KPN in the Netherlands, 3,000 at Swedish TeliaSonera and last year 1,500 in Portugalk, not to mention othe hundred a yearo at Swisscom. Clearly the number of job cuts varies depending on the size of the operator but the prize has to go to Deutsche Telekom, Europes telecoms leader which intends to dispense with 32,000 employeesby 2008.

Groups, which for some still employ a high number of civil-servants, tend to favour the gentle method in the form of voluntary retirement or scheduled retirement, etca This method is also chosen by France Telecom which announced on 14 February that it has no intention of replacing 17,000 employees in the next three years, the equivalent of 10% of its staff.

The reasons are everywhere the same: the osignificant changeso mentioned by KPNs owner Ad Scheepbouwer are essentially the same as the onew telecoms market environmento which has forced Telefonica to restructure or the obigger challengeso facing Deutsche Telekoms owner Kai Uwe Ricke. It all boils down to the same thin, old monopolies built up by providing fixed line services to national markets which are now faced with a dwindling market, new unforeseen services and new...

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