MCI Will Restructure, Analysts Say : Telecom: Changes will include management lineup, and jobs may be cut. Announcement could come as soon as next week.

WASHINGTON — MCI Communications Corp., the No. 2 U.S. long-distance company, will announce a restructuring and management shuffle as early as next week that could include job cuts, analysts said.

The restructuring comes at a time when MCI’s intention to become more than just a long-distance telephone company is being met by skepticism on Wall Street.

MCI said in January of last year that it would invest $20 billion to offer new services such as local phone, cellular and paging. MCI’s shares have fallen 21% since the day before making that announcement; the stock closed at 22.625 on Thursday, up 25 cents.

“The company has to do something,” said Michael Elling, analyst at Prudential Securities. Wall Street “is definitely uncertain about the direction” the company is taking, he said.

William Deatherage, analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co., said as MCI has started to diversify, it has added some unnecessary costs.

There may be ways of finding savings from sharing the use of facilities or overhead, Deatherage said.

As of Dec. 31, Washington, D.C., based-MCI had 40,667 employees. Analysts were not sure whether MCI would take a charge for any restructuring.

MCI declined to comment. The company, which usually reports its second-quarter results in the third week of July, is expected to announce that quarter’s results on Aug 2.

Based on the average expectations of 21 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research, MCI is expected to earn 38 cents a share for the quarter. A year ago, MCI posted $215 million in net income, or 37 cents a share, on revenue of $3.31 billion.

Analysts also expect MCI to announce an agreement next week with at least one regional Bell company and possibly with GTE Corp. to resell cellular services.