H1 2024: Telecom layoffs continue as Cisco, Telefonica, Telstra, Vodafone & others shrink headcount - ET Telecom (2024)

• Industry
• 5 min read

NEW DELHI: In the first half of 2024, the telecom industry globally continued to announce job cuts totaling thousands, seeking to rein costs amid inflationary pressures, streamline operations, and slim the organisational structure. The arrival of artificial intelligence (AI), and the uncertainty cast by European vendors Ericsson and Nokia over the growth of the radio access network (RAN) market this year due to a slowdown in 5G equipment sales in major markets like North America and India may further compound troubles for workers.

Media reports from Light Reading and Reuters news agency, company statements, and earnings transcriptions show that the telecom companies – including mobile operators and vendors – plan to cumulatively cut over 15,000 jobs, with India also coming under fire.

With that said, here is a rundown of the companies that have publicly announced in H1 2024 their plans to layoff employees:

• Cisco: The US telecom gear maker Cisco’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Scott Herren took to its Q2 2024 earnings call to announce that the company is realigning its investments and expenses to “reflect the current environment to help maximise the long-term value for our shareholders”.“As part of our announced restructuring plan, we expect to impact approximately 5% of our global workforce with estimated pre-tax charges of approximately $800 million,” Herren had said. TelecomTV, a telecom publication, estimates this restructuring exercise to result in the loss of more than 4,200 jobs. Cisco’s annual report for 2023 shows that the IT and networking giant had approximately 84,900 employees as of July 29 that year.
  
• Bell Canada: The Canadian wireless, internet, and television service provider said in February 2024 that it was slashing 4,800 jobs as a cost control measure, blaming the exercise on declining legacy phone and news businesses as well as “unsupportive” government and regulatory decisions. In 2023, it had announced to cut 1,300 workers due to a decline in revenue from legacy businesses.
  
• Telefonica: The Spanish telecom company laid off one-fifth – or 3,421 employees – in Q1 2024 in its home country as part of its efforts to reduce costs. It reportedly expected the layoff plan to cost around 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) before taxes and generate average yearly savings of around 285 million euros from 2025. Spain’s largest telco employs 16,500 workers domestically, and has a global headcount of 100,000 with presence in 12 countries.
  
• Telstra: The Australian telecom company has proposed to eliminate 2,800 jobs from its direct workforce by the end of 2024 to simplify operations and control costs.

  “(The) proposed measures, which require consultation with employees and unions, would result in up to 2,800 job reductions from Telstra’s direct workforce, with the majority of these to occur by the end of this calendar year,” Vicki Brady, CEO of Telstra had said during a media briefing, according to a transcript available on its website. The consultation on 377 roles was set to begin immediately, mainly from areas supporting the products and services to be exited in Telstra Enterprise.

  Advt
  It expects to achieve $350 million of cost reduction by the end of FY25, and a one-off restructuring costs of $200 to $250 million across FY24 and FY25.
  
• Vodafone: The multinational telecom company has separately said that it would cut 2,000 jobs in Germany to revamp the organisation, and also lay off 1,200 employees in its former Spain unit which was acquired by Zegona Communications in a 5 billion euro deal. To recall, in May 2023, Vodafone had announced that it would be cutting 11,000 jobs.
  
• Ericsson: As part of its global plan to slash 8,500 jobs, said this year that it is reducing its headcount in Sweden by 1,200 amid a challenging mobile networks market. “This measure is part of the global initiatives to improve the cost position, including headcount reductions, while maintaining investments critical to Ericsson’s technology leadership,” the company had said.
  
• Charter Communications: The US-based cable operator is cutting 1,000 jobs in a move to consolidate its call center operations, as per a Light Reading report on June 21. As per its latest financial report, Charter had around 101,000 full-time employees.
  
• Nokia: ET reported on February 21, 2024, that the vendor is restructuring its organisation in India, eliminating key profiles of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Technology Offcier (CTO), and legal affairs head, and creating three business groups (BGs) as part of cost-cutting moves which could result in around 250 job redundancies. This is in line with Nokia’s global restructuring efforts.
• Juniper Networks: ETTelecom exclusively reported in April 2024 that the networking gear and solutions provider is expected to shed 10-15% or nearly 500 employees from its India unit as it merges with Antonio Neri-headed Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

  US-headquartered Juniper employs 3,500 people in India. HPE acquired the company in a $40 per share deal, representing an equity value of $14 billion.

• Cable One: The US cable and broadband service provider said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it expects to reduce its total employee headcount by 4%. Light Reading estimates the exercise to impact 120 people. It reported just under 3,000 employees at 2023-end. Cable One, as a result, expects to achieve approximately $14 million of annual run-rate cost savings.
  
• Crown Castle: The shared telecom infrastructure provider plans to cut headcount by 10% and small cell expansion plans, in a move that may help drive operational efficiencies and enhance returns. “The Plan includes reducing the Company's total employee headcount by more than 10% and closing certain offices,” it has said.

It is to be noted that these announcements are hardly surprising. Layoffs have been commonplace in the industry, and have gained steam in last one to two years. Last year, job cuts and reductions dominated industry-wide discussions. Sweden’s Ericsson laid off 8,500 staffers – or 8% of its global workforce – to cut costs, while Finnish rival Nokia had said it’d slash 14,000 jobs over the coming years which would result in an organisation with 72,000-77,000 employees, compared to 86,000 employees then. British telecom groups BT and Vodafone, and US telcos T-Mobile and Verizon, were among the companies with layoff plans .

Join the community of 2M+ industry professionals

Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis.

Download ETTelecom App

• Get Realtime updates
• Save your favourite articles

Scan to download App