20
August
2021
|
14:54
Europe/Amsterdam

Openreach creates new NI civil engineering team

Openreach, Northern Ireland’s (NI) largest digital infrastructure provider, launched a new Civil Engineering department in July 2020 - initially creating eight new roles within the business to support its Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband build within the region.

The Civil Engineering department, which is currently based in Mallusk, has already played an important role in the development of Openreach’s network infrastructure and support existing service delivery and engineering teams in bringing faster, more reliable 1 Gbps capable broadband technology to homes and businesses across NI. Specifically, the team are responsible for installing new underground infrastructure to carry the fibre cables right into customers’ homes, supporting the rollout of Openreach’s broadband network in urban and rural communities.

With the success of the team of eight thus far, it is now expanding further with 16 new roles ranging from Civil Engineering team members to supervisory positions and opening a new base in the North West area. This significant investment will provide greater opportunity to connect people to our Ultrafast Full Fibre network and will largely support people living in Belfast and the North West area of the province.

James Burleigh, Contracts Manager at Openreach Northern Ireland, was central to the launch of the Civil Engineering department, having worked closely with Openreach colleagues across the UK to learn from their experiences in launching similar teams. James said: “After seeing how successful Civil Engineering departments across the UK have performed, I thought it was a great opportunity to establish a similar team in Northern Ireland to help support our Ultrafast Full Fibre broadband build programme. Based on the insights shared from our Openreach colleagues and the operating models they have in place, the team have been agile and responsive, able to mobilise at any time to support our colleagues as they work on the network. I’m proud that the team has had great success so far and look forward to welcoming further recruits over the coming months.”