MUMBAI: Time Warner's America Online (AOL) unit has announced plans to lay off 700 employees, mainly from its various call centers.

AOL is closing its Orlando, Florida call center and laying off the 450 employees who work there, according to spokesman Nicholas Graham. Other centers hit by the cut include Jacksonville, Florida, Tucson, Arizona, and headquarters in Dulles, northern Virginia.

According to the company, it is the decline in AOL's dial up subscriber numbers in the recent past which has forced it now to take the drastic step. The cuts amount to about 4 per cent of AOL's global workforce.