BT to slap overalls on 1,000 new bods in fibre broadband boost
Here's your badge, screwdriver and hard hat - now get on with it
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BT hopes to hire 1,000 engineers to pump high-speed fibre internet connections to street-side junction boxes, homes and businesses in Britain. The recruitment drive is part of the national telco's £2.5bn investment in its broadband network.
BT said that once the jobs are filled, it will have 6,000 engineers working on the project overseen by its Openreach division. The company recently said it had hooked up at least 13 million premises in Britain to its fibre network, gently jogging past rival Virgin Media.
The UK government wants at least 2Mbit/s broadband available to every Brit, and super-fast connections for 90 per cent of properties across the country. Councils awarded BT contracts, funded by the Broadband Delivery UK pot of taxpayers' cash, to roll out broadband across rural counties to meet these targets - but the telco said the work won't be completed until 2016.
That's one year after the Coalition government will have fought for survival at the next General Election. Ministers hoping to keep their jobs want the broadband coverage to be in place before Brits head to the polling stations.
Underlying the urgency to get the work done before the end of this parliamentary term, Prime Minister David Cameron chimed in this morning following BT's jobs announcement:
Working with business, the government is driving a transformation in UK broadband services and with an extra 100,000 homes and businesses gaining super-fast broadband availability each week, this is already taking shape.
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 said that it would fill the 1,000 posts by hiring about 400 apprentices, ex-squaddies and some long-term unemployed people. ®
COMMENTS
Engineer
Engineering has a problem, that of identity.
When the photocopier breaks it has a sign put on it saying "engineer will be here soon". No, no (s)he won't. A bunch of highly brainy and talented people designed the machine and all of its workings. They were engineers. Then a bunch of equally clever people worked out how to make it. They were engineers. Some bloke with a screwdriver is not an engineer, as AC notes he's a technician.
Engineering is a profession - that's why there are institutes for its different branches. You pass exams and all sorts to be admitted. THEN you can call yourself an engineer. It's a badge that must be earned. Sadly the engineering professions have let that slip, so world+dog uses the term.
You don't call the nurse a doctor because (s)he isn't a doctor - (s)he has done lots of training, but not that training. You don't call a Vet a Doctor, despite the massive commonality of the two professions.
I have just built a watercooled PC and installed an OS on it. That does not make me an electrical engineer or a software engineer. I'm just a bloke with a screwdriver, too much time on his hands and a few cuts from hidden sharp bits in the case.
Engineers - be proud. Stand tall. You are the future, just as you were the future in the past. Make these people earn the bloody badge, not just be able to use it.
All this from an accountant.
Re: Execellent
Probably find that the local competition has been seen off so BT can put off their investment for a while.
Re: Can't come soon enough
16Meg?!!!!!!!!
I would kill for that!
Best we have here is 5.7M and that's assuming that the weather outside is good. When it's chucking it down with rain signal quality dives to closer to 2.2M and despite my complaints to my ISP, I'm being told that BT don't believe this is possible (rain interfering with electrical equipment "just isn't possible" apparently!)
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