Cingular Wireless, the No. 2 wireless carrier, said Tuesday it would eliminate up to 3,000 jobs, or approximately 7 percent of its 40,000-member workforce.
Cingular, the joint venture between SBC Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp., anticipates eliminating more than one third of the positions through normal attrition and by abolishing temporary positions. Cingular has approximately 4,000 temporary workers.
The Atlanta-based company, which reportedly is considering a merger with VoiceStream Wireless, plans to eliminate positions throughout the United States and Puerto Rico in sales, marketing, network, finance and human resources.
Employees will be notified next month and given 60 days notice, a spokesman said.
Cingular anticipates taking a one-time pre-tax charge of up to $70 million as a result of the workforce reduction.
The company said the workforce reduction partly reflects its shift from a geographic focus to a channel-based sales strategy. Cingular will tap various distribution channels, including national retail stores such as a Best Buy or Wal-Mart, company-owned stores and affiliate stores managed by independent distributors. Cingular will focus on serving enterprise customers, ranging from small businesses to colleges to government organizations.
“Our new sales structure puts us closer to the customer, enables a quicker response to customer needs and does it at a lower cost,” said Bob Shaner, president of Cingular’s wireless operations, in a statement Tuesday.
Cingular Wireless was the subject of news headlines Tuesday. The Wall Street Journal reported VoiceStream has proposed a merger with rival Cingular to compete with the market leader, Verizon Wireless. A Cingular spokesman declined comment.
Cingular serves 22.2 million wireless customers and another 800,000 customers on its data-only Mobitex network, the spokesman said.
