Overland Park ? Sprint Corp., the telecommunications giant, said Friday it would eliminate 700 jobs in its business solutions division as it stops selling business long distance services outside of package deals. The cuts represent 7.8 percent of the division’s work force.

The Overland Park-based company also said it would record a pre-tax charge against earnings in its third quarter to reflect a decline in value of its long-distance assets.

The company said a majority of the job cuts would come from sales and support. The business solutions division was reduced by 1,100 jobs this summer. Sprint has cut 22,000 jobs during the past two years as it continues to evolve from primarily a local and long distance business to a company that earns more than half of its revenue from its wireless products.

The company is following other telecommunications providers that are recasting themselves as wireless and Internet services.

“They’re doing what they have to do to prepare the company for the telecommunications market of tomorrow,” said Jeff Kagan, an independent telecommunications analyst based in Atlanta. “We’re still making long-distance calls, we’re just not doing it on long-distance networks anymore.”

Sprint said its decision to reduce sales of stand-alone long distance was based on increased competition, price fights in the sector and a recent federal court decision making it more expensive to sell local service by leasing lines from the four regional Bells.

The court struck down an earlier decision that had allowed AT&T Corp., MCI Corp. and Sprint to lease the Bell lines at low prices set by state agencies.

“Certainly, the regulatory conditions have made it more competitive and that (court ruling) played a role in this decision,” said company spokesman Nick Sweers.

During the company’s second quarter, Sprint’s long-distance division reported a $139 million loss as revenues declined 6.6 percent.

Earlier this month, AT&T cut the value of its assets by a quarter, or $11.4 billion, to reflect the reduced value of its network now that it will be carrying less consumer voice traffic. It will be charged against earnings in the third quarter.

Sprint officials said they would disclose the amount of the impairment charge when the company releases its quarterly results on Oct. 19.