BT's engineering workforce in Cornwall will be boosted with 48 new recruits as the "Big Build" of the superfast broadband network moves into top gear. The new engineers will be based in Truro and many of them will be ex-armed forces personnel.
They are joining BT's local network business Openreach over the next few weeks to support the award-winning Superfast Cornwall initiative, which is rolling out superfast broadband across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
The recruits will spend their first few weeks completing extensive training and job shadowing and will then 'buddy up' with experienced colleagues. All the new engineers are due to be in place by the end of January. They will take the number of engineers working on superfast broadband in Cornwall to about 200.
The Superfast Cornwall partnership between the European Union, BT, Cornwall Council and Cornwall Development Company has dubbed the roll-out of superfast broadband in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly the "Big Build". The Big Build includes the laying of 130,000 kilometres of optical fibre and the upgrading of 100 telephone exchanges.
Nigel Ashcroft, programme director of Superfast Cornwall for Cornwall Development Company, said: "The roll-out of superfast broadband in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly is now moving into top gear. We are ahead of schedule and very soon the first people across the East of Cornwall will be able to upgrade to superfast speeds. These new engineers ensure that we make this exciting technology available to as many homes and businesses as quickly as possible. The job is immense and their commitment and support is vital."
Jon Reynolds, BT's South West regional director, said: "This major boost to our engineering workforce in Cornwall demonstrates BT's commitment to the success of this exciting private and public sector partnership.
"Our current engineering teams are busy installing fibre broadband across the county at a rapid pace - and our new recruits will help us take the new technology to even more homes and businesses.
"We have a strong track record of delivering broadband partnerships. We're prepared to commit significant sums to make it happen and our growing, flexible workforce in the UK will help ensure we are ready for action in any part of the country."
Pat Garland, general manager for Openreach in the South West, said: "We are proud that many of these important jobs will be filled by ex-armed forces personnel, who are highly skilled, motivated and have experience of complex engineering tasks in challenging environments."
The Cornish engineers are among an additional 520 being recruited across the UK by Openreach as it rolls out superfast broadband to two thirds of the UK by the end of 2014, a year ahead of schedule. It follows an earlier round of recruitment in May this year, when around 280 new engineers were employed, once again many of them ex-armed forces personnel.
Openreach has been working closely on the recruitment programme with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP), which brings together the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Right Management, a global talent and career management expert.
One of those who joined earlier this year was Andy Beel, aged 42, whose family come from Tregony, near Truro.
Andy left the army as a staff sergeant in January 2010 after serving 23 years. He served in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany and Northern Ireland. Married with three children, he now lives in Hampshire and is currently working for BT in the Southampton and Winchester area, but most of his family, including his parents, brother and sister, still live in Cornwall.
He said: "Joining BT was a great career move for me. It was the sort of job I always hoped to do when I left the army. You get to travel and meet people. You're helping to build an important part of the British communications infrastructure, which is a big part of people's lives, and it offers the prospect of learning new engineering skills.
"Working on next generation broadband for Openreach has many similarities to being in the armed forces which has made the transition straightforward - there is a chain of command, we visit depot stores, look after equipment as if it was our own and work in groups of people from a similar background and as one team. The big difference is youre not getting shot at - but when working by the roadside you do sometimes have to be careful of the busy traffic!"
The new network is available on an open wholesale basis to all companies offering broadband services.
BT recently announced it is to roughly double the speed of its super-fast broadband fibre-to-the-cabinet service next year and also increase the headline speed of its fastest fibre broadband product to up to 300Mbps.
In Cornwall, more than 15,000 homes and businesses already have access to superfast broadband. The figure is expected to reach 90,000 by the end of March 2012. And by the end of 2014 at least 80 per cent of premises in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly will have access to optical fibre broadband with alternative technologies, such as wireless and satellite, being used to boost speeds in locations where fibre is not currently viable.
Up to £53.5 million of the funding is coming from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) Convergence, the largest ever single European investment in broadband infrastructure, whilst BT is investing up to £78.5 million.
Customers can find out more about the Superfast Cornwall Big Build and get the latest information about their area at www.superfastcornwall.org
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For further information
Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Regional Press Office on 0800 085 0660 or Cornwall Development Company on 01209 311104. All news releases can be accessed at www.btplc.com/News
For further information on the Superfast Cornwall programme visit www.superfastcornwall.org
Notes to Editors
Superfast fibre optic broadband can be delivered as "fibre to the cabinet" (FTTC) or "fibre to the premises" (FTTP). FTTC is where the fibre connection is from the exchange to the street side cabinet with the remainder of the connection being over copper. FTTC provides download speeds of up to 40Mbps and upload speeds of up to 10Mbps. Technical improvements should see these headline speeds roughly double during 2012. FTTP is where the fibre connection runs all the way from the exchange to the customers premises. This technology provides download speeds of up to 110Mbps and upload speeds of up to 30Mbps. And from next Spring FTTP download speeds will be boosted to up to 300Mbps.
BT believes that both services can provide substantially higher speeds in the future if there is sufficient commercial demand for higher speeds.
Further information about next generation broadband is available from www.bt.com/ngb
About the Convergence Programme
The Superfast Cornwall programme is part financed by the European Union with up to £53.5 million from the European Regional Development Fund Convergence Programme.
For further information see: www.convergencecornwall.com
Convergence helpline telephone: 0800 028 0120.
In Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly the Convergence programmes are made up of European Regional Development Fund (£374 million) and European Social Fund (£153 million) Convergence Programmes and will run until 2013.
The ERDF Programme investment is intended to boost the region's economy by providing focussed support for business creating better quality, higher paid jobs. This support includes training and access to higher education, strengthening links between academia and business, improved IT infrastructure, additional high quality workspace and specialist support to boost business productivity.
About Cornwall Development Company
Cornwall Development Company Ltd is the economic development company for Cornwall Council and its mission is to achieve sustainable prosperity for all in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Further information is available at www.cornwalldevelopmentcompany.co.uk
About BT
BT is one of the worlds leading providers of communications solutions and services, operating in more than 170 countries. Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services. BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
In the year ended 31 March 2011, BT Groups revenue was £20,076 million with profit before taxation of £1,717 million.
British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group. BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.
For more information, visit www.bt.com/aboutbt
About Openreach
Openreach is responsible for the nationwide local BT network which connects homes and businesses across Britain to communications providers' networks. Openreach provides communications providers with services and products associated with that network.
