The USA network, AT&T Wireless is reported to be planning to make nearly half of its IT staff redundant by the end of next year, leading to some 1,800 job losses. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper said the company planned to cut about 1,800 of its 3,800 IT positions, citing two unidentified sources who were present at the internal meeting where the layoffs were announced.
AT&T Wireless has declined to comment on the story.
The paper said that the redundancies will affect IT positions not just in Bothell and Redmond, the two sites where AT&T Wireless's IT staff are concentrated, but also at development centers in New York City, Dallas, Greensboro, N.C., and Florida.
If confirmed, the redundancies will occur in three waves, the first this Autumn, the second larger wave in the first quarter of next year with the remainder at the end of next year. The sources did note that the IT department is overstaffed at the moment, so the move while painful for the dismissed shouldn't be seen as a sign of desperate cost cutting by AT&T Wireless, just prudent pruning.
The company currently employs about 33,000 staff."
Posted to the site on 9th April 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/8657.php