British mobile operator Virgin Media O2 has announced plans to lay off up to 2,000 employees by the end of the year.
The telecoms giant reportedly started to hand some staff redundancy notices on Monday night.
The job cuts will amount to more than a tenth of the mobile operator’s workforce, the Daily Telegraph reported.
It follows 55,000 roles being cut by rival BT Group back in May.
When outlining annual results, BT said it saw its “total labour resource” being reduced from 130,000 to between 75,000 and 90,000 by the end of the decade under a “rolling plan”.
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Virgin Media O2 was created after a joint venture between US-listed Liberty Group and Spain’s Telefonica in 2020.
Earlier this month, Ofcom opened a probe into the company following complaints that the mobile operator was making it hard for customers to cancel services.
The Liberty Group also holds 5% in Vodafone, which also plans to slash 11,000 jobs around the world across three years.
It comes as the company projects a $1.6bn (£1.2bn) drop in annual free cash flow.