HELSINKI – Finnish telecoms equipment maker Nokia announced Tuesday it will slash up to 11 percent of its workforce within two years as the firm looks to cut costs and focus on a few key areas in the face of tough competition over super-fast 5G networks.

Announcing a 600-million-euro ($715-million) cost-cutting programme, it said it expects to become “an 80,000–85,000 employee organisation, over an 18–24-month period, instead of the approximately 90,000 employees Nokia has today.”