BT to cut up to 55,000 jobs by 2030 as fibre and AI arrive

BT Group (BT.L), Britain’s biggest broadband and mobile provider, will cut up to 55,000 jobs including contractors by 2030 – potentially over 40% of its workforce – as it completes its fibre roll-out and adapts to new technologies such as AI.

The company has been working through a transformation plan to build a national fibre network under boss Philip Jansen, as well as rolling out high-speed 5G mobile services.

The former state monopoly reported on Thursday pro forma revenue and core earnings growth for the first time in six years in the year to the end of March, but the cost of transforming the business, and the hit to its free cash flow took a toll, sending its shares down 7% in morning trade.

Jansen said after completing the fibre roll-out, digitising the way it worked, adopting artificial intelligence (AI) and simplifying its structure, BT would rely on a much smaller workforce and significantly reduced cost base by the end of the 2020s.

“New BT Group will be a leaner business with a brighter future,” he said.

The group’s total number of workers would reduce from 130,000 to between 75,000 and 90,000 by its 2030 financial year at the latest, it said. Some 30,000 of its current employees are contractors.

Jansen said BT’s ongoing job cuts would accelerate as it completes its fibre build and switches off 3G.

“It’s a rolling programme (of cuts), but it’s a five-to-seven-year landing zone,” he told reporters.

This report’s information was first seen on REUTERS; to read more, click this link.