Terabeam, Telus shed staff

By Susan Rush
from CED Broadband Direct, July 12, 2002

The telecom industry obviously is not out of the woods yet, and many companies are still being forced to cut jobs to try and bring expenses in line with demand. The latest: Terabeam Corp. and Telus Corp. are shedding portions of their staffs.

Free space optics vendor Terabeam Corp. intends to decrease its staff by 20 percent within the next three months. The cuts will be felt throughout the company, and once complete Terabeam will have 280 employees. In September 2001, Terabeam reduced its staff by 90 employees and pared its market launch plans from six cities to four.

The company does not expect the cuts to interfere with its research and development efforts in the broadband wireless systems market.

Separately, CLEC Telus Corp. unveiled plans to reduce its employee roster by 6,000, as part of its ongoing Operational Efficiency Program. The cuts, which will be spread out in 2002 and 2003, will affect employees in Telus' bargaining unit and management positions.

The company also plans to consolidate several contact centers, consolidate some operational and administrative functions and close 33 retail stores in Alberta and British Columbia.

The cuts, closures and consolidations will enable Telus to reach its goal of becoming free cash flow positive in 2003, according to Darren Entwistle, president and CEO of Telus.

Although the telecom sector was hit hard by job cuts last year, this year is shaping up to be much worse, according to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. study released earlier this week. In the first half of this year, the telecom industry eliminated 165,840 job, which is up 27 percent compared to the first half of 2001. "The fact that telecom downsizing is on track to beat last year's total really tells where this industry is headed," Challenger, Gray & Christmas CEO John Challenger said.