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BT is set to hire 6,000 new staff to focus on the rollout of full fibre and 5G networks
BT will increase its investment in fibre to the home (FTTH) connectivity and mobile network infrastructure to £3.7 billion per year, as the UK’s former incumbent looks to overhaul its broadband networks in the coming years.
Britain’s biggest telco announced a staggering 13,000 redundancies when it released its financial report for the first quarter of 2018, dramatically higher than the 6,600 redundancies predicted by analysts.
The lay-offs, which will be made in back office and middle management positions, will be offset by the hiring of 6,000 technical specialists, bringing BT’s net job loss down to 7,000. The new hires will help BT to refocus its workforce on the development of its full fibre networks and prepare for the rollout of 5G.
"Openreach is taking a ‘Fibre First’ approach that positions the business to deliver, economically, at scale and pace, 10 million fibre-to-the-premises, FTTP, by the mid-2020’s, while in mobile, BT will continue to build 4G to 95% geographic coverage by 2020 and intends to lead the market in 5G," BT said in a statement to the press.
“I am really excited to be delivering the next stage of BT’s transformation and have put in place the team that will support me in achieving these objectives,” said BT’s CEO, Gavin Patterson.
