British Telecom’s continued roll out of fibre in the UK has brought great news to the unemployed by creating 1000 new jobs. As part of its broadband expansion, BT will enlist a new workforce of fibre engineers to help lay fibre for projects partly funded by Broadband Development UK (BBUK) – the organisation behind the improving of broadband in Britain. BBUK are distributing in excess of £500 million of public money in broadband services and BT has won every bid to date, contributing 40% of its own money in fibre expansion. The 1000 jobs created will add to the 1500 engineers already recruited by Britain’s largest telecommunications company and will see 400 apprentices, 200 former armed forces personnel, and 400 of the UK’s unemployed taken on in fibre installation. BT’s ongoing £2.5 million investment in fibre and the subsequent creation of jobs has been welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron, who talked about the news during his speech on the economy in Keighley, Yorkshire. “I warmly welcome the announcement from BT today. Working with business, the Government is driving a transformation in UK broadband services and with an extra 100,000 homes and businesses gaining superfast broadband availability each week, this is already taking shape,” said Mr Cameron. “Providing much faster broadband speeds, and enabling millions more homes and businesses to enjoy these speeds is vital for driving investment and equipping the UK to compete and thrive in the global race.” BT has created the largest fibre broadband of its kind in the UK, providing high-speed internet access to more than 13 million properties across the country. The apprentices taken on in the new recruitment drive will benefit greatly from the opportunity, receiving training over a two-and-a-half year period and gaining a BTEC diploma in ICT systems. For the first year of the course, apprentices will focus on installing fibre connections in the homes of BT customers, before going on to learn the full range of engineering tasks. Maths, English, and ICT training will also be given – all of which BT says is essential to progress within the company.

Leading the way

BT is confident that their investment, along with funding from the government’s BBUK programme, will help establish Britain as one of the leading broadband nations in Europe. “We remain highly confident that fibre can be provided to more than 90 per cent of UK homes and businesses, making the UK a global digital leader,” said BT’s chief executive Ian Livingston. “Faster broadband will help to fuel the UK economy and the jobs we are creating are part of that.” The Openreach arm of BT will be responsible for the roll out of fibre, carrying on the company’s commitment to add 99 exchanges to a further 1.2 million premises across the country. These will comprise of Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) technologies, which combined will offer download speeds of up to 80Mbps and upload speeds of up to 20Mbps. Openreach will also deal with recruitment, working with the Ministry of Defence and the Careers Transition Partnership to attract former members of the armed forces.