British cable company NTL, which has bought smaller riva`l Telewest for $6 billion, will announce up to 6,000 jobs losses on Tuesday alongside first-quarter results, newspapers reported on Sunday.
A spokesman for NTL would not comment on the reports. Investors have been expecting an update on NTL's plans following its take-over of Telewest, which was completed on March 3.
The Mail on Sunday said NTL would axe up to 6,000 jobs, or about a third of its workforce, adding that most of the enlarged company's call centre operations would be outsourced, with some work going to India. Marketing jobs will also go.
The Independent on Sunday newspaper reported 4,000 jobs would go, with Telewest's head office in Woking being closed.
On April 4, NTL said it was buying Virgin Mobile UK in a deal worth up to 985 million pounds ($1.82 billion), creating Britain's first "quadruple-play" mobile, fixed-line, broadband and TV service under the Virgin brand. The Mail on Sunday said Virgin Mobile would be relatively unaffected by the job losses although call centre staff may eventually be cut.
On October 3, NTL unveiled a long-awaited deal to buy Telewest in a move to compete more effectively with pay-TV company BSkyB and fixed-line telecoms firm BT and others.