In an attempt to cope up with the subscriber losses at its fixed-line phone business, Verizon Communications Inc is planning to slash close to 13,000 jobs at the division this year following a slump in expected fourth quarter revenues.

Chief Financial Officer John Killian said that the cuts will follow reductions of a similar size as in the last year. This year’s eliminations shall equal to 11 per cent of the staff at the unit with about 117,000 in the workforce at the year end.

The company’s sales grew 9.9 per cent to USD 27.1 billion, however short of the USD 27.3 billion estimate. The fixed-line revenue fell 3.9 per cent.

The company’s pretax expense was USD 3 billion last quarter related to job cuts, pushing it to a net loss of USD 653 million. This is in sharp contrast to the USD 1.24 billion profit last year.