Sprint Nextel plans to cut 4,000 jobs by the end of June to help offset losses resulting from a dwindling subscriber base, the company announced today.The third-largest wireless phone company also plans to eliminate more than 4,000 third-party distribution points and resellers, and shutter about 125 Sprint retail stores, as reported by InformationWeek.

?Sprint Nextel currently expects these actions to reduce its internal and external labor costs by an annualized rate of $700 to $800 million by the end of 2008,? the company said in a statement.

Sprint?s new CEO, Dan Hesse, is also said to be mulling whether to cut back or ditch the company?s projected $5 billion investment in WiMax.

"Sprint?s problems are bad news for medium and small businesses," bMighty.com's Paul Korzeniowski wrote in November, when Sprint gave former chairman, CEO and president Gary Foresee the boot. "There will be few options available for businesses desiring high caliber cellular services. The end result is they will have to put up with more dropped calls and static on the line."

This time last year, Sprint also had revealed plans to lay off 5,000 employees.InformationWeek