London (AFP) - Deeply indebted British telecoms operator Virgin Media O2 will cut "thousands" of jobs over the next two years under a cost-cutting programme, while making greater use of artificial intelligence.

First modification: 03/11/2026 - 16:41

In a statement published on Tuesday, the company announced that it plans to save approximately 300 million pounds (about 400 million dollars) through workforce cuts, as part of a broader plan to reduce its costs by about 800 million pounds annually by 2029.

The operator, which has 16,000 employees, could not specify the exact number of positions it will eliminate, although it told AFP that there will be "thousands."

Most of the cuts will come from restructuring the headquarters, especially in management positions, and not so much in jobs that are in direct contact with customers, Virgin Media O2 said.

Its CEO, Lutz Schüler, said he had been forced to make "difficult decisions" due to "the market conditions we face, the regulatory context in the fiber sector and the technological changes that are transforming all sectors of the economy."

These measures will be adopted "in parallel with greater use of AI and digital tools to streamline decision-making and execution," the group highlighted in the same statement.

The announcement of the staff cuts came together with the publication of the group's third quarter results, which showed a 5.7% year-on-year drop in its turnover, to 2.4 billion pounds (about 3.2 billion dollars).

© 2026 AFP

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