An engineer working on building the network
Openreach Regional Partnership Director for the West Midlands, Kasam Hussain, welcomed the results of a report from the Center for Economic and Business Research today.
In addition to boosting employment, the report commissioned by Openreach also shows that a nationwide rollout would allow more than 29,000 people in the West Midlands to extend work hours if they choose.
Also helping carers, parents and over 65s with access to jobs could add £ 2.2 billion of gross value added to the West Midlands economy.
Mr. Hussain said, “This report shows how pioneering the introduction of full fiber broadband could be in the rural and remote communities of the West Midlands.
“The pandemic has increased public recognition of the importance of high quality broadband, and we understand that fiber is playing an important role in the recovery of the region.
“The Cebr results show that accelerating the construction of the entire West Midlands economy would generate tremendous dividends and help reinstate people who were previously unable to meet other commitments or opportunities in their area to find.
“Cebr’s previous research explained the UK’s economic boom with a nationwide upgrade – including a £ 59 billion increase in productivity – of which £ 4.5 billion in the West Midlands. This updated report highlights how full fiber can help improve the UK and bring more than 85,000 people back to our region’s workforce. This is an opportunity that we cannot afford to ignore. “
Openreach is investing millions of pounds in a full fiber rollout in dozens of cities in the region, including many in the hard-to-reach “last third”.
Construction is well underway, including the Birmingham metropolitan area as well as hard-to-reach places like Cannock in Staffordshire.
Last December, Openreach announced that it would create 2,500 new roles and an estimated 2,800 partnered roles to support the construction of fiber optic across the UK, including 160 new roles in the West Midlands.
Openreach already employs more than 34,500 people, including more than 25,000 engineers, who set up, maintain and connect customers to their nationwide broadband network. More than 2,700 of them live and / or work in the West Midlands.