Finnish vendor Nokia announced plans to cut 180 jobs in its home country as part of ongoing restructuring efforts designed to slash €500 million ($556 million) from operating costs and increase investment in the fields of 5G and digitalization, the vendor said in a statement.
Nokia said staff reduction negotiations will begin on January 21. The company currently employs around 6,000 people in Finland.
The vendor said that the cuts will not affect development of 5G products at its main factory in Oulu. However, the job cut applies to all Nokia locations in Finland, with the biggest impact expected at the vendor’s headquarters in Espoo.
“The savings program we launched in 2018 has progressed as planned. We will continue to improve our operational capability and ensure the long-term competitiveness of the company. These decisions are not easy and we will do our best to support our staff during the change process,” said Nokia President of Mobile Networks Tommi Uitto.
Nokia had hired 370 employees in Finland last year as part of the company’s 5G efforts, and “plans to continue investing in certain priority areas in Finland,” Uitto added.
The vendor announced its cost saving program in 2018. In its third quarter 2019 earnings statement, the company lowered its original target from €700 million to €500 million.
Last week, Nokia announced that it has reached a total of 63 commercial 5G contracts worldwide.
The company said that some of the customers include AT&T, KDDI, Korea Telecom, LG Uplus, NTT DOCOMO, O2, SK Telecom, SoftBank, Sprint, STC, T-Mobile US, Verizon, Vodafone Italy and Zain Saudi Arabia.
Nokia highlighted that these 63 signed commercial contracts exclude any other type of 5G agreements, such as paid network trials, pilots or demonstrations. Including these agreements, the total number of 5G agreements would reach over 100.
Nokia also claimed to be the only vendor with a globally available end-to-end product portfolio that covers all 5G network elements, including radio, core, cloud and transport as well as management, automation and security. Approximately 60% of Nokia’s 5G customers select more than just New Radio from its end-to-end portfolio, the vendor said.
