NTL 'to axe up to 6,000 jobs'

NTL is set to announce that up to one in three of its staff will lose their jobs as a result of the $6bn merger with Telewest.

The final figure is likely to be revealed on Tuesday when NTL publishes its first quarter financial results but reports estimate that between 4,000 and 6,000 jobs will be axed as the ISP pushes to make £250m of cost savings.

Telewest's head office in Woking could be closed and some jobs at its eight call centres are expected to be offshored to India and South Africa, as an extension to an existing contract with outsourcer IBM.

The redundancies may well be followed by further job cuts as a result of NTL's £962m purchase of Virgin Mobile last month, which will allow the ISP to offer a "quad play" service of fixed and mobile telecoms, internet access and TV. But reports say the job losses will not be on the same scale as those related to the NTL-Telewest merger.

The news follows massive job cuts at mobile operator Orange and an ongoing programme to reduce staff numbers at telco Cable & Wireless that will see 3,000 staff lose their jobs.

No one at NTL was available for comment.