On Tuesday, the UK phone company said it would cut 20 percent of its employees (or 200 people) at BTopenworld, and reassign some of them to other parts of the parent company.
BTopenworld was formed last July as a consolidation of BT's mass market Internet operations, including narrowband and broadband access and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) portal Genie. It has less than 10 staff in the region including Japan, BT Asia Pacific spokesperson Harry James told Singapore.CNET.com.
James also noted that the various regional projects to launch Genie's services--such as content, gaming and entertainment--to mobile phone users in Asia Pacific would be "going according to plan." Among these projects is a partnership with Korea's LG Telecoms to jointly develop gaming applications.
Meanwhile, localized Genie portals have already been launched in Hong Kong and Japan.
The UK telco is planning to slash debt by a third, or 10 billion pounds (US$14 billion), this year by selling its mobile phone business, network operations and other assets.
Investments being evaluated include BT's 20 percent stake in Hong Kong's mobile operator SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings Ltd, 24 percent interest in Korea's mobile operator LG Telecom Ltd, one-third of Malaysia's cellular company Maxis Communications Bhd and 18 percent of StarHub Pte Ltd in Singapore.
BT is under pressure because of competitive pricing at home, as well as the recent bidding battle over 3G licenses, which could set the company back 30 billion pounds (US$43.6 billion).
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