NEWS
NTL is set to announce that up to one in three of its staff will lose their jobs as a result of the $6bn merger with Telewest.
The final figure is likely to be revealed on Tuesday when NTL publishes its first quarter financial results but reports estimate that between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs will be axed as the ISP pushes to make £250m of cost savings.
Telewest's head office in Woking could be closed and some jobs at its eight call centres are expected to be offshored to India and South Africa, as an extension to an existing contract with outsourcer IBM.
The redundancies may well be followed by further job cuts as a result of NTL's £962m purchase of Virgin Mobile last month, which will allow the ISP to offer a "quad play" service of fixed and mobile telecoms, internet access and TV. But reports say the job losses will not be on the same scale as those related to the NTL-Telewest merger.
The news follows massive job cuts at mobile operator Orange and an ongoing programme to reduce staff numbers at telco Cable & Wireless that will see 3,000 staff lose their jobs.
No one at NTL was available for comment.
Comments
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1. anonymous
Well they can't be axing the jobs from customer services. Rumor has it that their customer services department is only one man and a dog, and the dog is better.
2. misceng
NTL compete for worst customer service. Already surveys show NTL as near the bottom of the league in customer service. As a customer I believe the surveys are too generous but now I know that NTL are reducing staff to ensure that they cannnot be beaten for bad service.
3. Richard Sarson
As a Telewest Broadband adopter (Sept 2001), I have stuck with Telewest since, because they give me good service, despite now being expensive compared with some other ISPs. If, because of these cuts and the bad service culture of NTL, I get a problem, then I'll be off to another supplier like a rocket. NTL, you have been warned.
4. Simon Curry
Never have so many been so deserving, service & support or come to that basic good service has always been lacking. I have actively advised customers not to use NTL. I just hope the NTL poor service does not spread to Telewest.
5. anonymous
If it's NTL's helpdesk that gets cut then will we notice the difference?