Sprint continued its relentless chase for change last Friday by letting go of hundreds of employees in Reston, Virginia.

Sprint spokesperson Melinda Tiemeyer confirmed last Friday that the number of job cuts at the Reston office had hit 235. Tiemeyer also confirmed that Sprint has notified state officials of the layoffs under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).

The nation's Kansas-based carrier has been systematically eliminating positions it deems unnecessary. Just the week before, Sprint laid off over 400 employees, including close to a 100 executives at its Overland headquarters, bringing the total cuts for the area to over 900. Athough Sprint has not explicitly come out stating how many employees it plans on shedding, the company has said it plans to reduce its workforce to 33,000 -- the smallest of the four major national carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile). It's clear that Sprint isn't willing to fool around anymore.

Sprint, although still in third place, has been losing ground over the past few years. Verizon and AT&T are miles ahead, but T-Mobile, its closest competitor, has turned itself loose via a series of "maverick" plans on marketing spearheaded by CEO John Legere. In a similar effort, Sprint's new direction comes courtesy of the company's new CEO, Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure.

Claure, appointed in August to replace Dan Hesse, comes into power at Sprint amidst falling internal and consumer confidence. Sprint parent company SoftBank Corp.'s chief executive Masayoshi Son has been adamant about changing the way business is done at Sprint.

"Sprint is a daimyo in Kansas," Son said earlier this year, referring to ancient Japanese feudal lords that exerted little influence outside their home walls. "That's not enough."

"We need to change Sprint's culture," Son told The Wall Street Journal after a news conference in February.

In order to do that, Son has chosen Claure. Immediately after stepping into office, Claure has made it clear he intends to do whatever it takes to turn the company around.

"I have been very frank with employees from Day 1," Claure said. "We are looking at everything that we do. ... Businesses we shouldn't be in, we are in the process of eliminating."

Alongside the downsizing, Sprint is also rapidly introducing aggressive plans aimed at luring more customers to the carrier. In recent weeks, the network has started offering more enticing data plans, along with an option that allows consumers to get their hands on the latest iPhone every year.

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