The Austrian telecommunications firm Telekom Austria (TA) will fire 10% of its 18,500 employees in the next three to four years. TA Chairman of the Board Werner Kasztler said on May 19 that the reason for this move was the completion of the Austrian digital telephone network, which was planned to be finished by the end of this year.
TA is undergoing a general overhaul to bring the firm up to international telecom standards. This goal relies on two strategies - increasing TA's international contacts and entering the mobile telephony market. TA plans already to buy into Croatian telecom firm VIP-Net, and will apply for a third license to operate on the Hungarian mobile phone network.
Kasztler mentioned that as for fixed-line telephony, AT was interested in buying into telecom firms in Slovakia, Poland and Croatia, and in the years to come, the Czech Republic and Slovenia too.
