BT Superfast Broadband Rollout in London UK to Create 26000 New Jobs

Apparently BT’s work to rollout superfast broadband internet access (FTTC etc.) services in London will, over the next 15 years, help to create 26,000 new jobs in the city and boost the capitals economy by £20bn (£7.3bn in improved business performance, £11bn from business creation and nearly £1bn via home-working).

At present BT’s rollout of fibre optic broadband ISP services can already reach more than 2.2 Million premises (homes and businesses) in the city (around 8 Million across the UK), which will grow to 2.5 Million by the end 2012 (10 Million across the UK / 40% of homes).

The ‘Social Study 2012 – The Economic Impact of BT in London‘ report, which has been produced in partnership with Regeneris Consulting, is based on an analysis of the “positive contributions” made by the operators new infrastructure on wages, business development, overall expenditure around the UK and many other things.

Chet Patel, BT’s Regional Director for London, said:

“This report demonstrates the great benefits that BT’s activities, including its major investment in super-fast broadband, are delivering for London and will continue to deliver in the years ahead. The company plays a vital role in the prosperity and well-being of this capital city, from the massive economic boost provided by our activities to the 21,000 hours of volunteering activity carried out by BT’s people. Indeed BT is one of the few businesses to have people based in every borough.

BT’s plans to roll-out next generation broadband across London are now at a very advanced stage. But we want to go further and would very much welcome the opportunity to have an even bigger impact on London’s economy by working with the public sector to make the high-speed technology as widely available as possible.”

Social Study 2012 Highlights

* 6,600 new London start-up businesses will be created, through increasing use of cloud computing.

* A further 73,000 home workers across Greater London will be added.

* BT supported more than 60,000 London jobs in 2010/11 (e.g. direct employment and contractors/suppliers etc.).

* BT contributed £3.8 billion to the London economy in 2010/11.

* BT employs 14,000 people (12,700 direct employees and 1,500 contractors) in London with a total income of £628 million.

* BT spent £1.8 billion with London suppliers in 2011.

* BT committed almost £3.4 million to community, charity and voluntary programmes in London in 2010/11.

* BT has 1,060 homeworkers (8% of the workforce).

The report is somewhat conveniently timed as it follows shortly after the UK governments Budget 2012 announcement, which committed £100m to boost the deployment of “ultrafast” broadband in 10 large cities and a further £50m for another 10 “smaller cities” (details). London is of course expected to receive a huge slice of that, which will be worth between £10m and £25m; BT is vying for the lions share.

BT also claims to have directly created £1 in every £170 of Gross Value Added (GVA) in the UK.