9:00 AM -- The headcount reduction at Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) will affect 5,500 employees, about 7 percent of the company's 78,000 staff, the vendor told the media Thursday following meetings with unions.

The total is a little higher than the 5,000 indicated in September, when the vendor unveiled its restructuring plans. About half of the total cuts will be in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. (See Alcatel-Lucent Unveils Revamp.)

France is taking a significant hit, with about 1,400 of the 9,000 AlcaLu staff employed in the vendor's home country set to lose their jobs, according to Bloomberg.

The vendor's workforce in India is also expected to take a sizeable hit. (See IndiaWatch: Alcatel-Lucent To Cut 1,000 Jobs In India.)

Many in the industry have questioned whether CEO Ben Verwaayen is going far enough with his cost-reduction program. The company has been struggling to keep pace with market changes and is regarded as a likely candidate to become the next major telecom supplier casualty unless it embarks on a more radical restructuring plan. (See Alcatel-Lucent: Too Little, Too Late? and AlcaLu Issues Full-Year Profit Warning.)

By comparison, Nokia Networks is in the process of cutting more than 17,000 jobs and is starting to see the financial benefits of the resulting significant operating cost reductions. (See APAC Boosts NSN's Q3.)

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading