Verizon Loses 10 Percent of Work Force

NEW YORK, Nov. 20 -- Verizon Communications said about 10 percent of its total workforce -- double the number expected -- took an early retirement offer aimed at slashing the Bedminster, N.J.-based telecommunications giant's costs amid a slumping market for local phone service, the Hampton Roads Daily Press reported today.

But Verizon Vice Chairman Larry Babbio told a meeting of analysts in New York Monday that the company's push to become more of a broadband provider is on track to expand substantially next year, the article said.

At the UBS Eighth Annual Global Communications Conference here Monday, Verizon Vice Chairman and President Lawrence T. Babbio Jr. said that approximately 21,600 employees, including 5600 union-represented employees, will leave the payroll by the end of this week through voluntary separation offers. The plan was targeted primarily to managers in the Domestic Telecom business unit nationwide, to union-represented employees in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and to employees in Verizon Information Services.

Verizon said it plans to eventually install fiber optic cable to as many homes and businesses as possible in its territory. This will allow Verizon to sell television and Internet services that require the bandwidth of fiber optic lines. The company said it has chosen four vendors to provide the electronics equipment needed to link the fiber optic lines directly to homes and businesses. Verizon has about nine million miles of fiber optic lines that relay data between Verizon's switching offices and large businesses.
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