Nokia lays off 550

NEWS Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia has announced it is to lay off 550 staff working in research and development roles across four country sites. Some workers in Finland, Sweden, the US and the UK are being shown the door as the handset giant responds to the drop in demand worldwide for network infrastructure. Nokia's adherence to a continuing trend of redundancies within high-tech and telecoms represents an attempt by the firm to stem losses, as growth within the mobile phone market remains well below its late nineties heyday. A statement released by the company said: "The aim is to increase efficiency and operational synergies as well as to reduce costs."