Vodafone Australia plans to cut hundreds of jobs

Vodafone Australia, the Australian arm of the world's leading mobile telecommunications company, Monday said there would be a "significant reduction" in the number of office staff it employs in Australia in a bid to cut costs and increase its competitiveness.

But the company has not provided the specific numbers of redundancy, but there are reports that about 500 jobs will go, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports.

"Vodafone will be a leaner, more effective business that is completely focused on what our customers want now and for the long term," Vodafone Chief Executive Officer Bill Morrow said in a statement, reported Xinhua.

Vodafone has about 4,000 employees in Australia. Telecommunications analysts say the cuts come in response to falling revenues and customer numbers amid network problems over the past couple of years.

In Australia, Vodafone is operated by Vodafone Hutchison Australia (VHA), a joint venture between Vodafone Group and Hutchison 3G Australia.

VHA provides mobile service to more than 6.8 million customers across the country.

In its latest half-year report, VHA lost 178,000 customers in the first half of 2012.