RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Our business news starts with job cuts in the mobile phone industry.</s>RENEE MONTAGNE, host: Sprint Nextel Corporation says it will cut 5,000 or nearly 8 percent of its workforce. The nation's third-largest mobile phone company says it lost about 300,000 customers in the fourth quarter of last year. The company says the job cuts are aimed at reducing costs and further integrating Nextel, which Sprint a year and a half ago.
Sprint-Nextel, the nation's third-largest mobile-phone company, says it will cut about 5,000 jobs. Sprint bought Nextel about a year and a half ago, and is still consolidating operations.