"These are not redundancy plans," a France Telecom spokesman said of the job reductions, which were announced to the company's unions earlier on Monday.
The spokesman said the cuts were in line with forecasts made in late 2002, when the company announced a far-reaching restructuring plan to repair its balance sheet after a rapid expansion spree.
At the time it said it would cut about 20,000 positions in France through early retirement and reassignment over the next three years.
The company said that some 8,800 positions would be closed in France and 5,700 would be eliminated internationally. In 2003 the company cut 7,700 positions in France and 5,400 internationally through similar measures.
France Telecom, which had 217,000 employees at the end of 2003, said it expected to have about 202,500 by the end of this year.
The company plans to hire about 1,400 new workers in 2004, in research, technology and sales and marketing positions, the spokesman said. This was twice the approximately 700 new positions created in 2003.
Shares were down 1.12 percent to 22.98 euros by 1438 GMT in a broadly flat market.