BT is looking to fill more than 1,300 new jobs as part of a £1bn upgrade to the UK's phone network.

The new engineers will work on phone and internet connections to homes and businesses as part of BT Openreach, the telco's new access and services division.

Around £100m is planned to be invested in each of 10 UK regions during the next 12 months to improve the network's capacity. The work will include the installation of thousands of miles of new optical fibre and copper cabling.

"This major investment in infrastructure and new engineers will help us in the continuing improvement in service to our customers and end users," a BT spokesman said. ®