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By Clare Kane
MADRID, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Mobile phone operator Vodafone plans to dismiss 650 staff in its Spanish division,labour unions said on Wednesday, lower than the cuts of up to1,000 initially expected.
The London-listed company is in talks with unions to reduceits staff of around 4,000 in Spain, where it is losing out tocheaper competitors such as Yoigo and "virtual" mobileoperators which sell on bandwidth rented from other operators.
"The company made clear that the dismissal plan will goahead with or without an agreement," unions said in a statementafter a meeting with Vodafone on Tuesday.
Vodafone said it could not make any comment until talksfinish on Feb. 14.
Vodafone wrote down the value of its businesses in Spain andItaly by 5.9 billion pounds ($9.3 billion) in November, sayingeconomic weakness and unemployment had led to service revenuedropping 11 percent in Spain in the nine months throughSeptember.
Vodafone followed incumbent Telefonica's lead andscrapped smartphone subsidies in April, then decided to bringthem back in November after losing over 1 million mobileconnections, according to data from Spain's telecoms watchdog.
Vodafone entered into negotiations with unions earlier thismonth, with unions initially expecting up to 1,000 jobs, or aquarter of the workforce, to go.
As well as dismissing 650 workers, Vodafone wants tooutsource 130 jobs and change conditions, including salary andhours, for 120 more, unions said.
Many large Spanish companies have laid off workers to savecosts during the recession, pushing the unemployment rate to 26percent.
Telefonica said in 2011 it would cut 6,500 jobs from itsdomestic business over three years, while airline Iberia is in talks with unions to axe around 4,500 posts.
