BT Openreach to recruit 500 staff to boost broadband rollout

BT Openreach is on a recruitment drive, hoping to bring on board an additional 500 engineers to boost its customer service delivery, fibre broadband deployments and the building of high speed links for businesses.

In a similar recruitment campaign run earlier in the year, the company received 26,000 applications - more than 16 per role - and hopes to have the same reception this time around.

Joe Garner, CEO of BT Openreach, said: "Our fibre broadband rollout is making a really positive contribution to the lives and business of people right across Britain. We are seeing strong demand for our superfast fibre service, as well as our ultra high-speed business services like Ethernet.

"We are recruiting more people so that we can continue to build our network rapidly, and serve our customers better. Broadband growth is great for our customers and for Britain. These new engineers will help ensure that Openreach continues to meet and exceed the rising demands of our customers in an internet age."

The majority of the new engineers will work in London, Surrey and Aberdeen and will be recruited to deliver improved levels of customer service.

The company is currently ahead of service level targets set by Ofcom for new installations and repairs, but wants to exceed them further with the help of its new recruits.

The other new starters will be responsible for speeding up delivery of broadband in homes and businesses around the country. One big focus is the installation of high-speed Ethernet in medium to large businesses and some of the engineers will be maintaining these connections to enhance the company's customer service record.

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said: "BT's creation of 500 full-time engineering jobs is tremendous news. Government is taking superfast broadband to 95 per cent of the UK by 2017, and it's vital that a skilled workforce is in place to cope with the resulting increase in demand."

Clare Hopping
Freelance writer

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.

Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.

As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.