Sprint to Lay Off 8000 by March 31st 11

Oh my, WMExperts is reporting that Sprint has just announced that they are going to save $1.2 Billion in labor costs. Sadly, the money saved will be at the expense of people's jobs. And not just a few hundred jobs either. Nope, Sprint plans to eliminate approximately 8,000 positions. According to the press release, the positions to be eliminated will impact all levels of the company, and the impact on geographical locations will vary.

From the press release:

"Labor reductions are always the most difficult action to take, but many companies are finding it necessary in this environment," said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse. "We continue to improve the customer experience and these improvements are reflected in much higher levels of satisfaction in customer surveys and in independent performance tests. Our commitment to quality will not change."

Sprint notes in the press release that they've seen a notable reduction in calls per subscriber to customer care and increased customer satisfaction resulting from customer service improvements. Well, that's good to know because I've read countless complaints about Sprint's customer service in the TreoCentral forums over the years.

We know that Sprint is to be the carrier for the Palm Pre. Hmmm, everybody has been wondering if Sprint was the right network to go with, and now we see this. Some people are happy about that and some aren't.

I just read an article this morning over at Bloomberg.com entitled "Palm Investor Bets Money-Losing Sprint Is Perfect Pre Partner". Vivek Shankar talks about 53-year-old retiree Kevn McNiff, who plans to buy a Palm Pre. McNiff likes that the Pre is media friendly and that it has a keyboard. However, McNiff isn't happy that the Pre is going to be on Sprint. McNiff, like many others, is worried about switching to Sprint because of it losses and big, fat $20 billion debt. I'm sure McNiff would be even more concerned upon hearing about Sprint's announcement this morning of its plans to cut 8,000 jobs by March 31st.

Of course Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners feels that Sprint is an ideal partner because of it high-speed network. Plus Sprint doesn't have a huge phone like the iPhone that is exclusive to AT&T in the states.

From the Bloomberg article:

“Sprint has gone three years without a ‘hero’ phone in the smart-phone business,” McNamee said in an interview this month in Menlo Park, California. “From our point of view, this is the perfect carrier to work with.”

So, what do you think? Is Sprint the right network to go with? Goodness knows that Sprint needs the Pre.  Maybe just as badly as Palm needed the Pre.