Sprint to lay off 1,100 workers

Sprint announced Wednesday that it will cut 1,100 jobs over the next several months in order to be more competitive in the long-distance market.

Sprint announced Wednesday that it will cut 1,100 jobs over the next several months in order to be more competitive in the long-distance market.

In a statement, Sprint said it will cut 850 workers in its Sprint Business Solutions (SBS) division and up to 250 employees in corporate jobs that support that division, including IT workers. Sprint said it will notify the affected employees by mid-July.

Company spokesman Mark Bonavia said that 50% of the cuts would be in Sprint’s Kansas City area headquarters. Currently, the company has 65,000 employees, Bonavia said.

The company said it would also make some organizational changes in the SBS division to reduce costs and improve customer service.

“While we are seeing growing customer acceptance of our integrated portfolio and experiencing strong wireless growth in particular, we continue to see market pressures in our traditional long-distance business,” said Howard Janzen, president of the SBS division.

Sprint said it still expects to make its annual earnings projection of 70 to 75 cents per share when it releases its second-quarter earnings on July 22.