BT Openreach Recruit 500 Extra UK Telecoms Engineers to Improve Service

BTOpenreach has announced its intention to recruit another 500 full-time broadband and telephone engineers, mostly in London, Surrey (England), Aberdeen (Scotland) and more generally around Wales. The move forms part of BT’s on-going efforts to meet Ofcom’s new quality of service requirements (faster fault fixing and installations etc.).

Apparently around half of the new engineers, most of which will be placed into permanent posts or fixed term contracts of 18 months, will be used to help meet and ideally exceed the telecom regulators new service quality requirements (details). Openreach also claimed that their latest data (here) shows them to be running “ahead of Ofcom’s service level targets for new installations and repairs“. But that could suffer a hit during the often turbulent winter months.

Meanwhile the remainder of Openreach’s new recruits will focus on the needs of consumers and businesses by connecting new housing developments and helping to install Ethernet and “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services across the country. Some of the new engineers will also be responsible for general maintenance of BT’s national telecoms network.

Joe Garner, Openreach’s CEO, said:

“We’ve had a terrific response to our previous recruitment campaign, and I am thrilled to announce that we’re able to offer even more people an exciting career as an Openreach engineer.

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 move follows hot on the heels of Openreach’s last recruit drive, which for the same reason saw the operator announce the addition of 1,600 engineers during May 2014 (here). Apparently BT received a staggering 26,000 applications for that recruitment drive and many of the latest additions are being chosen from that list.

As a result the total number of new recruits announced by Openreach this year will hit 2,400, including more than 300 modern apprentices. Apparently more than 200 of those that have already been hired were ex-armed forces personnel. Overall BT has well over 30,000 members of staff, including those in non-engineering positions.