Sprint Nextel, the third-largest US mobile operator, yesterday announced plans to cut 8,000 staff by the end of March in an effort to save US$1.2 billion a year. The cuts affect approximately 14 percent of its staff and include the 850 voluntary redundancy plan announced late last year. Sprint expects to take a one-time hit of US$300 million in the current quarter as a result of severance charges related to the cuts. Although the operator noted in a statement that the positions to be eliminated “will impact all levels of the company, and the impact on geographic locations will vary,” it stressed that headcount reductions in areas of customer care and innovation “will be less than in non-customer facing groups.”

The major cuts confirm previous reports that the operator is aiming to become a leaner business. The global economic downturn is not solely to blame for Sprint’s troubles, however; the operator has been losing up to a million subscribers each quarter for a considerable period, leading Sprint to cut 4,000 jobs in early 2008 in response to such losses. In November it reported a US$326 million Q3 net loss. This week’s announcement of 8,000 further job cuts was also accompanied by news that Sprint has suspended pay increases and contributions to retirement plans to help pare expenses. Sprint said it repaid US$2 billion in debt in the second half of 2008, helping to reduce its interest burden. Last month, rival US operator AT&T announced it would cut 12,000 jobs, although the majority of those are not from the operator’s mobile division. Meanwhile, the economic downturn has been blamed for news today that technology companies Philips and Texas Instruments are to make thousands of cuts: Dutch company Philips Electronics is to cull 6,000 jobs to cope with a steep downturn that has hurt its consumer business, whilst semiconductor vendor Texas Instruments will lay off 1,800 employees and another 1,600 will leave through a voluntary redundancy programme.