The expectation that thousands of additional Sprint workers could be affected by a new outsourcing contract took a new twist today.

Citing a Swedish business weekly publication, Reuters is reporting that Ericsson has signed a service contract with Sprint worth more than $2 billion.

Sprint declined to elaborate on the report.

"We don't comment on rumors or speculation," James Fisher, a Sprint spokesman told me.

SprintConnection began reporting last November about the possibility of outsourcing moves that could shift thousands of workers in a so-called re-badging move.

This was before Sprint announced plans to cut 8,000 jobs in actions that are expected to be completed largely in the next few weeks.

Still, speculation has persisted about the outsourcing actions on top of the other job cuts.

"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," a Wall Street analyst wrote in a report last fall. "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."

Sprint's Chief Financial Officer met with Wall Street analysts in recent days and indicated that any outsourcing shift was not imminent.

But that was before the publication Affarsvarlden posted its big story featuring Ericsson and Sprint. Anybody care to translate the piece to offer a few more juicy details about these developments?