Yet more UK telecoms jobs to go

The gloom among telecoms firms continues to darken with the news that up to 750 more UK jobs could go.

Nortel Networks has axed another 350 jobs from its Paignton, Devon plant and the administrators of Dolphin Telecom look set to lay off up to 400 of the telco's 750 UK staff.

The latest Nortel cuts bring the total number of redundancies at Paignton this year to 2500, leaving just 2650 staff across the firm's remaining six sites in the town. Nortel is cutting 30,000 jobs worldwide this year, after reporting a loss, including one-time charges, of £13.5bn ($19.4bn) for the three months to the end of June.

Liam Nagle, vice president of global operations at Nortel, told local newspaper the Herald Express: "We would certainly think that this was the last action of this kind, but that's what I said the previous four times we made similar announcements."

The telco equipment maker still employs around 8000 staff in the UK and Eire.

The administrators of troubled telecoms network operator Dolphin Telecom, which has London's Metropolitan Police and the BBC as clients, are believed to be considering cutting between 350 and 400 of the firm's staff. The telco was put into administration last week.

The firm lost £226m ($325m) in the first three months of the year and had planned to cut 600 jobs across Europe before going into administration.