Telia has announced plans to cut staff numbers by 850 people as the Swedish telco looks to reduce costs following a disappointing Q2.
“This is vital for a competitive Telia Company as we still see pressure on our legacy revenues and as anticipated falling one-off revenues from fibre,” said CEO Johan Dennelind. Telia is standing by its 1.9 million household target by the end of 2018 and it remains the market leader.
Service revenues declined by 2.7 per cent as gains in broadband and TV revenues were offset by lower revenues from fixed telephony and fibre installation revenues.
Permit-related issues caused the temporary stalling of a number of fibre installations. That said another 45,000 fibre installs were made in Sweden during the quarter.
The number of TV subs received a 10,000-subscriber boost in the quarter, largely as a result of the C-Sam acquisition. The regional fibre operator has subscribers in Sodertalje, Jarna and Nykvarn.
Denmark added 5,000 TV subscribers to reach 33,000, while in Lithuania another 5,000 subs took the total to 234,000, Estonia remained unchanged on 177,000.
