BT hails efforts of Bristol fibre broadband engineering team

Bristol-based engineers are playing a key role in deploying fibre optic broadband throughout the UK, BT has announced.

A 140-strong team based at the Marsh Street central telephone exchange complex has been tasked with maintaining and monitoring the telecoms giant's super-fast broadband network, which is set to reach two-thirds of properties by the end of 2014.

Run by Openreach, BT's local access network business, the Bristol operation is responsible for activating every one of the thousands of green street cabinets that deliver fibre broadband to homes and businesses across the country.

In and around the Bristol area, around 4,000 of these cabinets have already gone live.

Chris Hughes, general manager of the Openreach Access Operations Centre in Bristol, said: "This is cutting-edge technology. It's the future.

"We are right at the leading edge here in Bristol and I can't think of any other job I would rather be doing."

In the three months to June 30th 2012, BT added more than 150,000 customers to its fibre optic broadband customer base.