BT appoints new chief executive of Openreach

BT has appointed Olivia Garfield to head up its Openreach subsidiary, which is responsible for deploying fibre broadband across the UK.

Ms Garfield will assume her new role as Openreach chief executive on April 1st 2011. She is currently the telecoms giant's group director of strategy and regulatory affairs.

Her tasks will involve building on the foundations laid by her predecessor Steve Robertson. Since it was launched in 2005, BT's local access networks business has made super-fast broadband available to more than four million properties.

The company is looking to extend its fibre broadband coverage to two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2015.

Commenting on the news, Ms Garfield said: "Fibre broadband is the future and I am determined to make it available to as many homes and businesses as possible via a wide range of providers."

Earlier this month, BT revealed its super-fast infrastructure has been rolled out to Crawley in Sussex and the Berkshire town of Woodley.