Ericsson to Reduce Staff in North America

Ericsson plans to fire more than 750 employees from its North American field services operation later this year. This is part of a continued effort to cut costs in the face of lower operator spending on 5G networks across the region.

According to media reports, staff will be let go from 1 September, citing an internal memo which also explained external providers will fulfill all of the vendor’s US field services work from 1 October.“The downturn in market demand means we can no longer justify the cost this unique capability represents,“ Ericsson said in a response to Mobile World Live.

The vendor stated since the inception of the field service delivery business in 2015 it had consistently worked with trusted and authorized external providers, and its delivery of network services, from site design and engineering to continuous pre-emptive support and network optimization, will not change. Ericsson argued the change will provide added flexibility, reduce costs and simplify its operations.