BT is creating 150 new full-time engineering jobs to help roll out its next-gen fibre broadband network.
This takes the head count of BT’s fibre optic army – the team charged with connecting two-thirds of the UK to fibre by the end of 2014 – to over 3,000.
10 million homes and businesses in the UK are to be connected by the end of the year. The new recruits will begin working on the fibre rollout in May and will make up a “mobile engineering workforce,” that can be deployed anywhere in the UK.
Liv Garfield, CEO of BT Openreach said in a statement; “We’re really pleased with the progress we are making in delivering our fibre deployment. Through system and process enhancements, we’re delighted to be delivering fibre even faster. We can only do this if we have the right number and calibre of engineers on the ground. It is also fantastic to be able to offer permanent jobs to people in the current economic climate.”
BT: Upgrade 80Mbps broadband to 100Mbps broadband in 2013
BT’s fibre network will be a mixture of Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) which provide speeds of up to 80Mbps and 100Mbps (later rising to 300Mbps) respectively.
Last week saw the launch of BT Infinity 2, the new service from BT that provides speeds of up to 76Mbps. Currently available to 7 million customers, 10 million homes and businesses ought to be able to sign up for BT Infinity 2 by the end of 2012.
By Spring 2013, upgrades to 100Mbps/FTTH broadband are due to be available to customers on what BT is calling an ‘on-demand’ basis, which presumably will mean renewing your broadband contract.
We’re currently tracking the progress of BT’s fibre upgrades with our #bbrolloutroundup feature every Friday.
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