T-Mobile US to cut 5,000 jobs, mostly in corporate, back-office roles – ET Telecom

NEW DELHI: T-Mobile said it is cutting up to 5,000 jobs – or nearly 7% of its workforce – primarily in the corporate and back-office, and some technology roles as the telecom major grapples with higher customer acquisition costs.

“Starting this week, and over the next five weeks, we will be making changes to our organization that will result in the reduction of some positions at the company. These shifts will impact close to 5,000 positions, a little under 7% of our total employees in locations across the country, primarily in corporate and back-office, and some technology roles,” Mike Sievert, President and CEO, T-Mobile, said in an email to employees.

The chief executive added that he does not expect any “additional widespread company reductions again in the foreseeable future” after this process is complete.

“Impacted roles are primarily duplicative to other roles, or may be aligned to systems or processes that are changing, or may not fit with our current company priorities,” Sievert said.

T-Mobile is attempting to have a leaner organisational structure by creating “bigger, broader people manager roles with deeper spans and fewer layers” to provide long-term growth opportunities.

“What it takes to attract and retain customers is materially more expensive than it was just a few quarters ago,” Sievert said, adding that T-Mobile has been outrunning this trend by accelerating its merger synergies and building its high-speed internet business faster than expected and “out-performing in a few other areas”.

“However, it is clear that doing everything we are doing and just doing it faster is not enough to deliver on these changing customer expectations going forward,” he said.

“We need to move at the speed of technology, using data, AI and other tools, to deliver simplified digital experiences specifically curated for every customer,” the chief executive said.

According to a Reuters report, T-Mobile expects to incur an estimated $450 million pre-tax charge in the third quarter. The telecom giant had approximately 71,000 employees, as of 2022, as per media reports.

It is to be noted that T-Mobile is not the only company in the wireless industry that is cutting jobs. Its rivals AT&T and Verizon, as well as, Crown Castle, gear maker Ericsson, Airspan, Cambium Networks, Cisco, Dish, and BT, are among the companies that have laid out their headcount reduction plans.