The quest for cost savings could be leading Sprint executives to dramatic outsourcing moves that would shift thousands of employees to other companies such as IBM,Alcatel Lucent or Ericsson. A substantial number of jobs could be lost in the process.

The practice, sometimes referred to as "re-badging," has been a commonly used cost-cutting method at Sprint in the past and more recently at other telecommunications companies such as Embarq.

The process involves removing employees directly from Sprint's payroll and paying a vendor to take over certain business units or various technical jobs such as monitoring a network. The vendors often hire some, but not all of the former Sprint employees.

Sprint definitely is looking for ways to pare expenses, including possible "headcount reductions," Dan Hesse, Sprint's CEO, said in a recent interview. The company is seeking volunteers over the next few weeks who will agree to leave the company after the first of the year.

Other possible cost-cutting moves at Sprint have been generating increasing discussion in the industry, including a recent report by Phil Cusick, an analyst at Macquarie Research. Cusick published an investor report saying Sprint is "cutting costs dramatically across the organization, including exploring an IT outsourcing (possibly to IBM) and outsourcing some of its network operations toAlcatel Lucent or Ericsson."

Cusick said his checks indicate that Sprint could outsource as many to 5,000 to 10,000 employees now involved in running the company's Sprint and Nextel wireless networks. He said Ericsson and Alcatel Lucent are the remaining bidders for the contract that Sprint is considering for substantial savings.

"Network outsourcings typically involve transferring the affected network operations employees (though not the network itself) to the vendor, which will then 'right-size' the cost structure,"Cusick wrote. "Given (Sprint's) redundant iDEN and CDMA workforces, we would expect significant layoffs (including in Kansas City) that (Sprint) may not have the political stomach to do itself."

A Sprint representative said the company always considers ways to improve its cost structure but declined to discuss specifically the likely future of the SprintNextel network teams.

Sprint will be prudent in how it balances its pursuit of cost savings with maintaining the dependability of its networks, said LeighHorner, a Sprint spokeswoman.

"It's a key component," she said.

Sprint is in the process of seeking workers willing to accept a voluntary separation package.

"People need to make a decision about their career," Horner said. "Any additional things beyond that would be based on the state of our business and our planning for 2009."

Hesse, on the day his company reported more than $300 million in third-quarter losses, told us in an interview that Sprint would continue to shrink its work force. He said he did not have any announcements to make that day, but he couldn't rule out new job cuts.

"Given the economic climate, we are weathering it fairly well so far," Hesse said. "We will see how we do in the fourth quarter. There could be head count implications for the company going forward."