Broadwing to reorganize, lay off 900

Integrated communications provider Broadwing announced a reorganization plan yesterday to streamline management and cut costs, including layoffs of 900 employees--about 15% of its staff.

Broadwing customers will be consolidated from 11 Web-hosting centers into three core facilities, located in Cincinnati, Austin, Texas, and Newark, Del. In addition, the company is closing six sales offices.

The company’s ZoomTown DSL and Internet activities will be merged into its Cincinnati Bell operations--a move that the company says “better leverages the ZoomTown DSL product into Cincinnati Bell’s suite of bundled offerings.”

Broadwing also is terminating its construction line of business, which built networks for other carriers. Some customer-service and IT operations will be outsourced, and others streamlined to focus on higher-end data and Internet customers.

Most affected employees were let go yesterday; the rest will be terminated in the first quarter of 2002. Broadwing expects to take a charge between $250 million to $300 million during the fourth quarter for the restructuring.

--Amalia D. Parthenios, staff writer