Thirty new engineering jobs are to be created in Dorset by Openreach.

They are among at least 200 in the South West – and 5,300 across the UK – announced by the company.

The new roles will enable Openreach to continue improving service levels across its existing networks, while building and connecting customers to its new ultrafast, ultra-reliable ‘Full Fibre’ broadband network at a record pace.

The nationwide expansion includes more than 2,500 full-time jobs in Openreach’s own service and network build divisions, as well as an estimated 2,800 positions in its UK supply chain, through partners such as Kelly Group, Kier, MJ Quinn and Telent.

The UK’s largest digital infrastructure firm has separately made a commitment to upgrade all 27,000 Openreach vehicles – the second largest commercial fleet in the UK – to electric by 2030.

The announcement comes as the firm hit a record build rate for its Full Fibre broadband programme.

It aims to reach 20m homes and businesses by the mid-to-late 2020s.

The company says the figure is on the assumption that it obtains the required critical enablers.

Openreach engineers are now delivering faster, more reliable connectivity to another 40,000 homes and businesses every week, or the equivalent of a home every 15 seconds.

Full fibre build is already underway in dozens of locations across the South West, including Gillingham in Dorset.

According to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), a nationwide Full Fibre broadband network would boost UK productivity by £59bn by 2025.

Updated modelling suggests it could enable nearly one million more people to access employment including over 300,000 carers, nearly 250,000 older workers and 400,000 parents.

The economic benefit for the South West alone could be up to £4.3bn.

The pandemic has accelerated changes in working patterns and, with full fibre, nearly two million more people than previously estimated could also choose to work from home in the long term, reducing transport and housing pressures in big cities and boosting local and rural economies across the country.

Connie Dixon, Openreach Regional Director, pictured left, said: “As a major employer and infrastructure builder, we believe Openreach can play a leading role in helping the UK to build back better and greener.

“Our Full Fibre network build is going faster than ever and we’re now looking for people across the South West to build a career with Openreach and help us upgrade broadband connections and continue improving service levels throughout the region.

“We’re also investing in our supply chain, which will support the creation of thousands of jobs based all over the UK.

“We know the network we’re building can deliver a host of green benefits – from consuming less power to enabling more home working and fewer commuting trips.

“We’re going to take that a step further, by committing to build and maintain that network using state of the art electric vehicles (EVs) across our 27,000-strong fleet.

“We’ll have completely transitioned to EVs by 2030.”

Openreach already employs more than 34,500 people, including more than 25,000 engineers who build, maintain and connect customers to its nationwide broadband network.

Of these, more than 3,400 live and/or work in the South West.

Over the last two years, Openreach has created more than 6,500 trainee engineering roles to support its build programme and to deliver improved customer service.

The new trainee apprenticeship roles will be filled during 2021 and come with a starting salary of £21,845.

• openreach.com