PlatformX Communications to Make 300 More UK Staff Redundant
Network operator PlatformX Communications (PXC), which is a trading name of TalkTalk that sells wholesale solutions to broadband ISPs and other network providers, yesterday notified hundreds of staff that they could be made redundant by around the end of this year. Some support teams will also be moving offshore from the UK.
ISPreview started to notice problems yesterday after a number of PXC’s staff suddenly began reporting that they expected to be made redundant and were now open to work elsewhere. The expectation is that around 350 workers could be on the chopping block and technical support is also expected to be moved largely offshore (a small number will stay on in the UK’s Network Operations Centre).
The move comes shortly after the group secured another £100m funding deal (here), which itself following last year’s £400m refinancing package and related job losses (here, here, and here) – necessary to avoid a default on its debts. Suffice to say that the group is still doing everything it can to cut costs and tackle the underlying debt problem.
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On the flip side, we understand that approximately 70 new roles may also be created by the business, which means that the net figure for job losses is more likely to settle at somewhere around the 280 mark.
A PXC Spokesperson told ISPreview:
“PXC continuously reviews its operations to ensure it remains efficient and dynamic in an evolving marketplace. The company’s ongoing focus is on rolling out new product innovation and delivering exceptional service for its partners.”
The risk with offshoring support as part of this is that it could potentially result in degraded quality, which is something that PXC’s partners may not appreciate. We should point out that PXC currently has roles in both the UK and North Macedonia.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Endemic of the UK for some years. Then the government looks clueless as ever and is on a mission to throw money at schools etc. to get people into IT / Tech jobs.
AI is getting bigger, and wholesale jobs will go. Less people in jobs = less tax revenue. Not talking about AI to diagnose stuff, as that’s useful, and AI in various forms been around a long time, but in a enhancement capacity previously, many things not even labelled as AI at the time. Now, it’s the stage to reduce staff significantly that companies are seeking.
You can have cheap, or high quality in the UK, BUT, you cannot have both. Pick one. In this case, the tech support staff lose out to cheaper international wages. Low prices are great at first but they kill off our own industry.
Sadly some of my old colleagues are caught up with this, the signs have been on the wall for sometime though. Some of those being made redundant have been with the company for 10 years or more, sad to see and will be quite a change for those who have been there for 20 years or more.
Job market is not in a great place right now either. Feel for them.
Many of my colleagues—exceptionally talented people who genuinely care about our customers—have been caught up in these decisions. In short, PXC has offshored virtually all support, engineering, and operations functions (among others) with little thought for how this will impact the customer experience. It is abundantly clear there is no credible business continuity plan in place.
Much of the service desk support has been shifted to North Macedonia. While there are a few capable individuals, the overall quality of support falls far short of what our UK-based teams delivered. The engineering function has been entirely offshored to Tech Mahindra. They are quick to make promises, but in practice—even routine engineering tasks become a drawn-out nightmare, plagued by poor communication, lack of initiative, and, at times, outright incompetence. This is not speculation—it is first-hand experience. For further evidence, one only needs to look at Trustpilot reviews or contractor forums to see how poorly Tech Mahindra treats both employees and consultants. Any skilled talent that does emerge rarely stays for long.
Mark is correct in warning that this shift will degrade service, but I would go further: this will not merely degrade service—it will annihilate it, triggering a mass exodus of customers. In the past, the company avoided disaster by leaving just enough experienced, dedicated staff in place to prop up operations, albeit at the cost of overworking and underpaying them. This time, however, the cuts have gone so deep there is nothing left to fall back on.
I find myself almost impressed by how completely out of touch and incompetent the senior leadership team appears to be. Then again, perhaps I shouldn’t be. The company has long been steered into debt by a culture of complacency and poor management from those convinced they “know best.” Coupled with a products team that demonstrates no clear strategy, vision, or technical capability, the trajectory is obvious: we are witnessing another Titanic—headed straight for the iceberg.
Why have you singled out TalkTalk for causing the mass exodus of customers due to the adoption of AI, when all the major players are at various stages of adoption?
They said nothing about AI, they talked about outsourcing of functions from PXC to North Macedonia for support and Tech Mahindra for engineering.
I worked there for 7 years and for most of it you were nothing more than an employee number, though my immediate colleagues were very smart and tallented, not so much for some of the managers. And now I hear they are outsourcing to Tech Mahindra? A company full of incompetence, that, for the record, caused the airport software crash a few years ago. My advice if you use their Internet services? Switch, and switch soon