Sprint Lays Off 800 Customer Service Reps

Sprint's first round of layoffs since Softbank acquired it come as customer complaints are down -- but so are subscribers.

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

August 27, 2013

1 Min Read
Sprint Lays Off 800 Customer Service Reps

With Softbank in, iDEN out, and customer care accolades up, Sprint says it will cut around 800 customer service jobs, primarily in Texas.

Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) confirmed the layoffs to Bloomberg Tuesday. The company noted that customer complaints are down and satisfaction has increased, so fewer positions are required. (See Sprint Uses Amdocs Smart Agent.)

That is a part of the story, and a big part, as Sprint has worked hard for several years to improve its customer service. But the cuts also come as the US's third largest carrier just shut down its Nextel iDEN network, bleeding customers in the process. It lost more than 1 million monthly subscribers in the second quarter, so there are simply fewer to serve as well. (See Nextel Drags on Sprint as 4G Push Continues.)

Sprint began the layoffs last week, a third of which affected employees in Fort Worth, Irving, and Temple, Texas. A Sprint spokeswoman told Bloomberg the company would like to maintain a workforce of around 40,000 employees, and so no company-wide layoffs are expected.

It's also hiring as it looks to complete its Network Vision with help from new parent company SoftBank Corp. and integrate new subsidiary Clearwire's TDD LTE network. (See Sprint Completes Clearwire Acquisition and Sprint's LTE TDD Future to Boost Current Vendors.)

— Sarah Reedy, Senior Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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