The redundancies are expected to come from management, administration and areas of duplication across the company, which had 8526 staff at the end of the last financial year.

One staff member from Adelaide, who wished to remain anonymous, said Optus had already started the cuts with his team called to an urgent meeting today.

“We were told the same team as ours exists in Sydney and they were going to be merging everything to be run from there,” he told news.com.au.

“They said eight people (out of 20) would remain for a transition period of up to eight weeks, with the option then to relocate to Sydney, reapply for a different role internally or take advantage of recruitment consultancy offered by the company.”

The staff member said while he could understand the need for cost cutting in the competitive industry, he felt the company was not doing enough to retain loyal employees.

“There is a long standing core of Adelaide staff that have been with Optus for 10 years. Why not coach and train them for new positions?” he said.

Optus’s decision follows the company’s decision last week to cut 200 jobs and close 36 stores nationwide as it pulls the plug on its Virgin Mobile brand.

The company blames intensifying competition in the telecommunications industry for the cuts and expects the savings to fund future investment.

An Optus spokeswoman said the company was looking to become a “next-generation” telco, with a focus on being a “world-class, mobile-led, digital services provider” that offered premium content to customers.

“Optus is future-proofing our organisation and making a step-change to the way we work, do business and fund future investments so we can continue to thrive in our increasingly competitive and disruptive market,” she told Fairfax Media .

“Certain roles will be impacted either directly or indirectly because of these changes, including 400 roles which will be made redundant.

“Our policy is always to speak with employees who may be impacted by these changes first, including discussing redeployment opportunities.”

As part of its push to set it apart from rivals, Optus has delivered exclusive access to sport to its customers.

Optus Sport has exclusive Australian rights to the English Premier League and will broadcast 64 matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in June, with 39 of these only available to customers. The company also has connections with Foxtel pay TV competitor, Fetch TV.