Virgin Media O2 is to cut thousands of jobs as part of an £800m cost-cutting drive, the Guardian reports. The company set out the plan with its latest results on Tuesday.

The firm said £300m of the savings will come from cutting the size of its workforce, the Guardian reports. That will reduce its wage bill by 30% over the next two years. The company did not say how many jobs will go. The Guardian reports it could be as many as a quarter of its 16,000 staff.

Most of the cuts will fall on roles that do not deal with customers, ISPreview reports. The company also plans to use more AI tools in customer service, network planning and fault repair, according to the Guardian.

The company will "halt investment in further fibre upgrades" beyond what it has already promised partners, ISPreview reports. It plans a low-cost upgrade instead to bring faster speeds to most of its older cable network in 2027. The firm said the market does not support three overlapping fibre networks.

"Standing still and doing what we've always done is not an option and while many of these decisions are tough, they are necessary for our future success and growth," chief executive Lutz Schüler said, according to the Guardian.

The company is also exploring deals to use other networks in areas it does not reach, the Guardian reports. It lost 23,300 broadband customers in the quarter to the end of September, the paper says.

BBC News reported earlier that thousands of staff were facing redundancy. Prospect, a union that represents some staff, called the cuts "disappointing and very unsettling," the BBC reports.