Tata Teleservices has fired between 500 and 600 employees to tide over difficult times in the hyper-competitive telecom market.

As many as 600 employees have been impacted by the layoffs in sales and other related functions, two people familiar with the matter said.

The lay-offs are across locations, they said, adding that the severance package being offered to the employees impacted by the decision is one month’s salary for every year of service. An e-mail sent to Tata Teleservices did not elicit a response.

Sources in the company said that these are challenging times for the telecom industry. “What most operators, including Tata Telservices, are doing is workforce rationalisation, to stay competitive in line with the needs of the market,” said one of them.

Tata Teleservices spearheads the Tata Group’s presence in the Indian telecom market. The company, along with the listed arm, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd, has a presence in 19 telecom circles.

It offers integrated telecom solutions to customers across wireline and wireless networks. According to TRAI data, Tata’s mobile subscriber base stood at 51.2 million as on February 28. The company has nearly 4.4 per cent market share in the country’s total mobile subscriber base of over 1.16 billion.

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