Sprint is reportedly set to cut 800 customer service jobs as it realigns business segments following its recent acquisition of Clearwire, acquisition by Softbank and shuttering of its legacy iDEN operations. The cuts total just a fraction of Sprint’s approximately 40,000 total workforce.
According to published reports, the cuts will include 284 positions in Fort Worth, Irving and Temple, Texas. Sprint has been posting significant improvement in customer care surveys, though the most recent numbers showed it had again slipped a bit to below the industry average.
Sprint recently posted second quarter financial results showing continued operational challenges associated with increased competition from both larger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility based on their extensive LTE network rollouts, as well as from smaller rival T-Mobile US, which has significantly ramped up marketing and pricing pressure. Sprint lost more than two million customers during the quarter, including more than 1.3 million customers from the final turn down of its iDEN operations.
The Softbank investment, which included $21.6 billion for a 78% stake in Sprint, is expected to help the carrier speed up the deployment of LTE services, which have lagged rivals due to funding concerns, as well as help integrate Clearwire’s 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings beginning next year. Sprint picked up the minority interest it did not previously own in Clearwire last month for $5 per share.
Sprint cut about 2,500 positions during the fourth quarter of 2009, which followed additional job cuts made throughout that year.
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