BT promises to create hundreds of jobs in West Midlands

BT Broadband has had a very busy year, what with laying down fibre for their upcoming Fibre-to-the-Premises service that will be completed by 2014. BT had earlier announced that the project would be set for completion by 2015, but accelerated schedules allowed the firm to push back the completion date by an entire year.

The firm has made considerable progress, and announced earlier this week that their new service was already available in ten exchanges across the UK, specifically, in the Ashford, Bradwell Abbey, Chester South, Exeter, Forest Hill, Highams Park, Ilford Central, Leytonstone, St Austell and York exchanges.

The FTTP service will be able to provide subscribers with speeds of up to 100Mbps and is tagged with a monthly fee of £35. Aside from that, users will also be asked to sign on for a subscription with BT for 18 months.

Of the move, managing director of BT’s consumer division John Petter said: “We are delighted to launch BT Infinity option three, which offers our fastest-ever speeds for consumers. We are seeing very encouraging take-up of our fibre-based broadband and we now have more than 300,000 customers.”

In another move that’s sure to make a lot of people happy, especially those in the West Midlands, BT has announced that it will be working hand in hand with the Communications Workers Union (CWU) in the creation of 300 customer service jobs for its Providence Place complex in West Bromwich, Sandwell.

Ian Livingston, BT’s chief executive, stated: “We all know how difficult the job market is, so the fact BT is bringing more than 300 further roles to the area is great news and is a reflection of the efforts and cooperation of both the CWU and Sandwell council.”

The jobs were finalised following “positive discussions between BT and the Communications Workers Union (CWU).” BT explained that the negotiations with CWU “helped ensure the new jobs are permanent BT roles, rather than third-party roles, and are based in the UK.”

Recruitment for candidates commenced last week, where most of the jobs will be placed and filled by early next year.

CWU deputy general secretary Andy Kerr said that the new jobs deal was “the best scenario as it offers job security and real investment for the local economy.” He added: “We hope that this model will be used in the future to create more permanent UK-based jobs in BT customer services and other areas.”

Source – ZDNet