BT Group, Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile provider has said that it will cut up to 55,000 jobs by 2030. Theses will also include contractors. This huge job cut would amount to 40 per cent of BT’s workforce. The company will move in this direction as it completes its fibre roll-out and adapts to new technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Under its boss Philip Jansen, the company was undertaking trasformation plan to build a national fibre network as well as rolling out high speed 5G services.
The former state monopoly reported on Thursday pro forma revenue and core earnings growth for the first time in six years in the year to the end of March, but the cost of transforming the business, and the hit to its free cash flow took a toll, sending its shares down 7% in morning trade.
Jansen told Reuters that post fibre roll-out, digitising the way it worked, adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and simplifying its structure, BT would opt for a much smaller workforce by the end of 2020s.
“New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future,” he said.
When the job cuts take place, BT’s total workforce would reduce from 130,000 to between 75,000 and 90,000 by 2030 financial year. Some 30,000 of its current employees are contractors.
Jansen said BT’s ongoing job cuts would accelerate as it completes its fibre build and switches off 3G.
“It’s a rolling programme (of cuts), but it’s a five-to-seven-year landing zone,” he told reporters.
“No surprise”
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said that the job cuts were “no surprise” given that a lot of changes were taking place in infrastructure and technology.
Talks between BT and the CWU were necessary to ensure a smooth transition on that front said the union, adding that BT should aim to keep direct jobs and cut contractors.
Vodafone, the rival of BT, said on Tuesday that in order to restore its competitive edge, it would cut 11,000 jobs worldwide.
Jansen said around 10,000 fewer network engineers would be needed to run digital networks, while technologies like automation and AI would replace another 10,000.
“Huge opportunities” in AI
He said that there were “huge opportunities” in using Artificial Intelligence. He added that generative AI large language models would be a leap forward that rivalled the arival of the smartphone.
“We’re not going to be in a situation where people feel like they’re dealing with a robot,” he said. “”We’ve got multichannel, we’re online, we have got 450 stores, that’s not planning on changing.”
(With inputs from agencies)
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