The rise and fall of Telefónica

BT has more to gain from slashing up to 55,000 jobs than Vodafone has from cutting 11,000, and BT's plan looks more feasible.

CEO Philip Jansen expects up to 42% of existing BT roles to have disappeared by the end of the decade, thanks partly to generative AI.

Vodafone's new boss Margherita Della Valle plans to cut 11,000 jobs in three years, raising questions about the European operator's direction.

Operators tracked by Light Reading cut nearly 58,000 jobs last year, and many roles in the telco sector could be in the crosshairs of AI.

Swathes of the industry remain unconvinced open RAN is a fix for the big problems it originally identified.