Phone company Verizon Communications Inc. is offering buyouts to 1,700 workers, mainly call-center employees and technicians, as it continues to shrink its wireline business.

The offer applies to less than 1 percent of Verizon's overall work force of 191,800 as of the end March, and about 2 percent of its wireline work force.

Verizon is cutting its wireline costs as households cancel their phone lines, opting to go to competitors or to rely on cellphones.

Verizon has been offering a series of buyouts. In 2010, it says 12,000 employees accepted such offers.

The latest offers went out last week and Verizon spokesman Rich Young says the target is to have employees leave in the first weeks of July. If not enough people accept the buyouts, he says layoffs are a possibility.