When seeking approval for its purchase of Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia promised €900 million (US$1.02 billion) in operating cost reductions by the end of 2018. Today, it is beginning actions “to reduce company personnel globally as part of its synergy and transformation program.”

Of its nearly 104,000 employees, the company intends to eliminate about 10,000 to 15,000 positions, reports Bloomberg, based on anonymous sources.

To start the process, Nokia representatives are meeting today with the company's two European Works Councils. Similar meetings with employee representatives will take place in about 30 countries in the coming weeks.

In a separate announcement today specific to its operations in Finland, Nokia said it plans to reduce about 1,300 jobs in its home country, with about half of those reductions in the city of Espoo, about 25 percent in Oulu, and another 25 percent in Tampere.

Nokia had also promised to minimize layoffs in Alcatel-Lucent’s home country of France. And Bloomberg is reporting that Nokia plans to keep about 4,200 jobs in that country.

Workers in the United States have fewer employment safeguards than in European countries and may see higher layoffs, as reported by SDxCentral just prior to the Alcatel-Lucent acquisition.

But other than the 1,300 layoffs in Finland, the company isn’t providing numbers for specific countries, yet.

The headcount reductions will come largely in areas where there are overlaps such as research and development, sales, and corporate functions.

As part of the cost-savings program, Nokia also will target worldwide savings in real estate, services, procurement, supply chain, and manufacturing.