fbazakos

Siggy, Ken, you guys making the cut again ???


KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Sprint Corp. will lay off 2,000 workers,
or nearly 3 percent of its work force, by the end of the year as
part of an effort to cut operating expenses over the next three
years.

Sprint said Monday the job cuts will involve both its wireline
and wireless divisions. It employs about 70,000 people overall,
including about 20,000 people in the Kansas City area.

About 20 percent of the jobs that will be cut are in the Kansas
City area, company spokesman Mark Bonavia said.

The cuts are part of the Overland Park, Kan., telecommunications
firm's reorganization around two market segments: business and
residential customers. The restructuring is scheduled to go into
effect Jan. 1.

Including the layoffs announced Monday, Sprint has cut more than
21,000 jobs in just over two years.

The company currently is organized according to products: local
telephone services, long-distance voice and data services, and
wireless.

The layoffs are in addition to those announced in September,
when Sprint said it will use outside contractors to handle some
software operations, affecting hundreds of jobs at the company.
Sprint also announced in September that it wanted to reduce total
operating expenses 5 to 7 percent or more than $1 billion each
year over the next three years.

Independent industry analyst Jeff Kagan of Atlanta said the
layoffs announced Monday were different from previous job cuts.

``The last few years there have been unhealthy cuts because it
was just a company shrinking to try to survive. Now we're seeing
reorganizational-based cuts, and those are always healthy, because
it shows a company's focusing on a growth opportunity,'' Kagan
said.

The company will announce later how much the job cuts will cost
Sprint during the fourth quarter, Bonavia said. Both of Sprint's
tracking stocks will record one-time charges.

Sprint announced last month that it lost $498 million in the
third quarter in contrast to a $519 million profit a year ago.
Sprint said the loss reflected the consolidation of its two
businesses, which are traded separately on the New York Stock
Exchange.

Slooo97CL

iTrader: (1)

thats funny because they are opening a sprint store down the road from me very soon.

kensteele

I made the cut.

fbazakos

Well they aren't making any money selling phones, so they gotta trim the fat. I just hope Ken & Siggy make it through.

kensteele

We both made it, when we were with you at lunch we knew, Dave has his new job and I still have my same old job which is launching phones.

I'll let Dave into the reasons because it has more to do with IT and outsourcing than anything else. These are good cuts.

There use to be 4 product managers launching phones at Sprint. Now there are only 2. Me and another guy and basically he does Samsung and I do all the rest. I have a lot of work to do.

Those are some of the kinds of cuts in the reorg. Will I be looking? Maybe....

fbazakos

I know some guys in NJ if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen anymore.

BTW, tell you buddies in sprint web development that the pcs wireless network is now SLOWER than at&t ...

http://www.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/compare/

kensteele

We'll change that when you change your "we are the largest network in the US" crap.

fbazakos

well here ...

http://www.attwireless.com/speed/;ds...BOP3B4R0H0CFEY

that proves the sprint claim of being faster than at&t wrong (since me just saying it isn't good enough around here anymore).

now prove that somebody has a larger network in the US than verizon.

kensteele

That's your proof, an ATT URL. C'mon you know ATT just became a little bit faster a few days ago. And with the except of Verizon in DC and SD, ATT is faster than Verizon, too.

FACT: http://www.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/compare/coverage.html

SiGGy

Fotis,

Ya I made it. There is more layoffs comming too. The new group I'm in is pretty solid. I should be OK for awhile.

But ya never know...


thanks for caring

this economy can be a bitch!

kensteele

Everyone has asked themselves, where would you go if you got laid off? To me, it's more "where" than "who". I would like to stay in the wireless industry, Verizon is in NJ, ATT is in Washington State, and hte manufacturers are spead out Samsung, Dallas; Nokia, San Diego; Motorola, Chicago; Sanyo, LA.

Do you think Verizon could use some help with their phones? I could bring a lot of my account relationships with? Hehe, j/k. My long range plans are to go WEST.....

fbazakos

yeah i figured you'd get a kick out of that :P

but yeah, ATT EDGE is faster than Verizon's 1XRTT as well as Sprint's. i thought that was obvious, guess I should've made that clear.

so as far as coverage area, who has the largest network?

YuppieCL

glad you guys didnt lose your shirts....

siggy, what do u do for sprint?

fbazakos

He does Unix Systems Administration. He made a job change recently.



looks like it was a good move.