Cable & Wireless gears up for swingeing cuts

Cable & Wireless UK, which runs internet service provider Bulldog, has announced a major restructuring that will result in large-scale job cuts and the loss of 90 per cent of its customers.

The move comes as the company seeks to simplify its product offering and raise margins on remaining businesses.

C&W UK is looking to reduce its customer tally from 30,000 to just 3,000, and intends to concentrate on large enterprises and business institutions.

The company will also cut staff from 5,500 to between 2,500 and 3,500 over the next four years.

"We have already made significant progress on integration in the relatively short amount of time we have had," said John Pluthero, chairman of C&W UK.

"Customers are crying out for a better experience from their telecoms supplier and we intend to give them just that. I am confident that we can execute our plans successfully and achieve the objective of about £2bn revenue. "

The move will also involve a switch in emphasis from traditional voice services to converged IP-based offerings.

Voice currently makes up 60 per cent of C&W UK revenues and the company wants to convert that figure to revenue derived from managed IP services.

Some 360 jobs will go over the coming year and C&W UK expects to shed 18,000 customers by September 2006.