BT Group, Britain’s broadband and mobile provider, announced its plan to trim its workforce by laying off up to 55,000 employees post launching of its fibre-optic broadband and 5G network and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).
The company is altering policies to build a national fibre network as its rolling out high-speed 5G mobile services, which won’t need much human labour in building and maintenance.
The company, which was earlier called British Telecom, is working on automating its business by relying on AI technology and simplifying its structure to shrink costs.
The Broadband company reported pro forma revenue and core earning growth, the cost of transformation hit its cash flow, sending its shares down by eight per cent.
By the end of this decade, the group is planning to reduce the number of workers from 1,30,000 to between 75,000 to 90,000 and estimates by that time, most of its full-fibre network will be built. Presently, the company has 30,000 contract-based employees.
Earlier, Vodafone, a UK-based wireless carrier also announced the layoff of 11,000 employees in a major revamp due to surging inflation.
BT also gained 5 per cent, meeting the market’s expectation, in adjusted core earnings of $10 billion after growth in networks and consumer businesses offset a decline in the venture.
The tech and telecom company that aspires to grow both revenue and core earnings, has also been investing huge amounts in building its fibre network faster to reach its target of providing ultrafast full-fibre connections by the end of 2026, to 25 million premises.
