France Telecom will spend €900 million ($1.1b) improving staff conditions over the next two years to prevent more suicides at the firm.
Under what it calls a “new social contract for France”, the carrier said it would invest in new IT infrastructure and recruit 10,000 younger staff members.
The measures, aimed at tackling low staff morale after a spate of suicides in 2008-09, are a core part of the company’s five-year Conquests 2015 strategy unveiled earlier this week.
FT said it would build a €2 billion fiber access network to 40% of French households and grow revenues through international acquisitions, with the aim of increasing its global subscriber base from 100 million to 300 million by 2015.
It said it was ready to roll out LTE as soon “regulations are in place.” CEO Stéphane Richard toldBloomberg the telecom industry “will rediscover the strategic importance of networks in the years to come.”
The firm will differentiate itself around quality of service during the period, improving customer satisfaction by helping them migrate to new services and offering better control over costs.
Acquisition targets will be in emerging markets, in line with Richard’s previously announced goal of doubling revenues from developing countries within five years.
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