BT brings forward deadline for fibre broadband rollout

BT has pledged to deliver fibre optic broadband to two-thirds of UK homes and businesses a year earlier than had been planned.

By recruiting an additional 520 engineers and bringing forward around £300 million of investment, the telecoms giant will be able to complete its deployment programme by the end of 2014.

Most of the extra employees are set to comprise former members of the armed services.

Some six million properties already have access to BT's fibre broadband service, with this figure due to hit ten million next year as part of the company's £2.5 billion investment in the technology.

Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT, said: "Our rollout of fibre broadband is one of the fastest in the world and so it is great to be ahead of what was an already challenging schedule."

The news comes just a matter of weeks after BT revealed it will double the speed of its fibre-to-the-cabinet service to 80Mbps next year.