Yorkshire and the Humber
intouch Autumn 2012
It’s been a season
of transformation.
From the wettest
of summers, we’ve
emerged into the
golden glow of an
Olympic extravaganza. London 2012
captured the public imagination,
and has delivered a massive boost
in confidence.
In addition, the Welsh government and BT
have announced the largest partnership of
its kind, and will use public and private funds
to help Wales become a global leader in fibre
broadband.
BT continues to make big steps forward in its
ambition to roll out fibre broadband to more
areas of the UK. We have been selected as a
BDUK framework supplier, putting us in the
right position to bid for regional and local
tenders.
So much has been learnt in the last few months
about speedy, cost-effective fibre deployment,
and we want to share these experiences with
you. Working in partnership, we can help bring
Olympic-quality fibre broadband to your local
community. Now that we understand how
much we really can achieve when we all pull
together, it’s time to get busy. Email me at
[email protected]. On our marks,
get set…
North Yorkshire, England’s largest rural county,
has secured BDUK funding for fibre broadband
roll-out, and selected to work with BT to extend
beyond the commercial roll-out. Meanwhile,
Surrey has signed a similar deal that will see it
become the best connected county in the UK.
We’re also hugely proud of our role as official
communications services partner of the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Our
single network for games-critical applications,
LOCOG and the media covered 94 venues, and
the world enjoyed the benefits of BT’s teamwork
and world-class communications services.
John Anderson, BT Regional Director
Great news for SMEs as BT announces ‘FTTP on Demand’ trials
Small and medium-sized businesses across the
UK are set to benefit from Openreach’s new
‘FTTP on Demand’ service, which could help
them compete both at home and abroad as well
as maintain and create jobs.
Aimed at the most demanding users, it supplies
customers in an area currently only served by
FTTC technology with an ultra-fast broadband
connection directly to their home or business.
That provides another option for SMEs who
need higher speeds – digital media organisations
being one example – and who are potentially
willing to pay the extra deployment costs.
Openreach has chosen eight locations across the
UK where it will pilot FTTP on Demand, which
is intended to be commercially available from
spring 2013. So that Openreach has enough
time to address the challenges in deploying the
service with its Communications Provider (CP)
customers, the pilot is being held in two phases.
Phase one, which will test the planning and
construction process, began in July 2012 and
will run to early 2013. It will allow participating
CPs to order a 330Mbps downstream and
either 20 or 30Mbps upstream service in parts
of High Wycombe, Bristol South, St Agnes
(Cornwall) and Edinburgh.
Phase two, which will run from March to
May 2013, will test new automated order
processes, and focus on the 330Mbps
downstream/30Mbps upstream product. This
phase will see the pilot extended to parts of
Watford, Cardiff, Basingstoke and Manchester
Central.
CPs will assist Openreach with the installation
cost. However, it will then be up to them
whether to absorb that likely one-off charge,
recover it through higher monthly prices or
pass it on in full to their customers.
 Lead message
Great news for SMEs as
 BT announces ‘FTTP on
Demand’ trials

Fibre broadband boost for
North Yorkshire
 Stay up to speed

Partnership celebrates
10,000th customer

Openreach team fires up
demand for Fibre Broadband

Breaking records:
London 2012

Openreach swells ranks with
ex-armed forces personnel

Leeds City Region hails BT’s
investment in training
Yorkshire and the Humber
intouch Autumn 2012
Fibre broadband boost for North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is celebrating
securing Broadband Delivery
UK (BDUK) funds to deploy fibre
broadband, which is expected to
help boost its economy and create
or protect local jobs.
One of the most rural counties in England,
North Yorkshire has a current average
downstream speed of 6.6Mbps, with 17 per
cent of premises receiving less than 2Mbps.
Now, its County Council has inked a deal with
BT that will give 90 per cent of its homes and
businesses – some 365,000 premises – access
to speeds of up to 80Mbps by the end of
2014.
Ultra-fast speeds of up to 330Mbps will
also be deployed in certain areas, and made
available ‘on demand’ throughout the entire
fibre footprint should local businesses want to
upgrade. The remaining 10 per cent of
premises will see a speed uplift too, with the
project aiming to deliver 2Mbps or more by
the end of 2014 to all homes and businesses.
The initiative will take the total amount
invested in North Yorkshire fibre broadband
to around £70 million. We have already
committed around £23 million, and will now
contribute a further £10 million towards
deployment in “non-commercial” areas.
£17.8 million will come from BDUK funds,
and the remaining £8.6 million from the
European Regional Development Fund
(EDFR).
A similar contract has also just been signed in
Surrey. BT, Surrey County Council and BDUK
are funding an ambitious project which, by
the end of 2014, will provide almost 100 per
cent of its homes and businesses with access
to speeds of up to 80Mbps. And under a new
deal recently done in Wales, contributions
from BT and BDUK will help bring fibre
broadband to 96 per cent of premises there
by the end of 2015.
Stay up-to-speed
BT has announced to date that
116 exchanges in Yorkshire and
the Humber will benefit from our
investment in fibre broadband. In
total, these exchanges serve over
1.2 million homes and businesses*
• 82 are already accepting orders with 10
due in December, and 6 due in 2013*
* For the latest information on superfast fibre
broadband availability for exchanges up and
down the country visit http://www.superfastopenreach.co.uk/where-and-when/
John Moore (left), of North Yorkshire County Council, and
Bill Murphy sign the Connecting North Yorkshire contract
Bill Murphy, Managing Director of BT Next
Generation Access, said: “It is fantastic to
see North Yorkshire, the BDUK pilot, cross
the finishing line. The race to provide the UK
with the best superfast broadband network
in Europe by 2015 is still very much on, and
we’re looking forward to working with other
local authorities and regions to bring the
economic benefits of high speed broadband
to businesses and communities everywhere.”
Yorkshire and the Humber
intouch Autumn 2012
Partnership celebrates 10,000th customer
products have been utilised in major projects
including Olympic infrastructure and NASA
missions, and the higher broadband speeds
are already playing a role in the firm’s growing
global success.
Cornwall’s 100,000th customer – Arcol team
An electronics manufacturer has
become the 10,000th business to
benefit from a pioneering broadband
private and public sector partnership.
ARCOL UK Ltd recently signed up for
fibre optic broadband, and as a result
has seen speeds rocket 60-fold.
Established in 1952, ARCOL produces and
sells up to four million power resistors a year
in more than 30 countries worldwide. Its
Alun Morgan, ARCOL’s technical director, said:
“Our experience of fibre broadband so far is
really superb. The previous broadband line
was giving us a download speed of around
1.5 Mbps, whereas our new fibre connection
is regularly providing 92 Mbps of data
throughput – a colossal difference, which is
giving us the ability to do everything much
more quickly.
The new fibre optic technology is helping
ARCOL to reduce costs, work more efficiently
and flexibly and build stronger relationships
with its customers. “We need to have
the ability to constantly reach out to our
customers, whether the medium is IP (Internet
Protocol) telephony, video-conferencing or
online chat. Superfast broadband has given
us many more avenues to cement these
important relationships.
“All of our sales and purchasing teams have
iPads and soon, thanks to our greatly enhanced
broadband, they will be able to use them to
log in to our office network via an interactive
portal. Not only will this result in immediate
processing of transactions, but it will enable
issues or queries to be resolved more quickly
and efficiently.
“Superfast broadband even gave us the chance
to base a salesman in Buckinghamshire in order
to service the UK market more effectively.
Our new fibre broadband – and his own fibre
connection – allows him to access our systems
many times more quickly.”
Nigel Ashcroft, programme director of
Superfast Cornwall for Cornwall Development
Company, which is managing the £132 million
partnership, added: “Arcol becoming our
10,000th customer is another major milestone
in the rapid development of the Superfast
Cornwall programme.”
To find out more about the programme, visit
www.superfastcornwall.org
Openreach team fires up demand for Fibre Broadband
Openreach is utilising its massive
presence in local communities
to highlight one of the biggest
changes in communication
technology.
Services range from supplying basic marketing
tools such as stickers for street cabinets and
banners for web pages, linking to the hugely
popular superfast http://www.superfastopenreach.co.uk, right through to full-scale
project management and integrated PR
activities, such as TV, radio and events.
A team within the division are offering
councils and Local Enterprise Partnerships
(LEPs) professional marketing and
consultancy services to help them stimulate
demand for fibre broadband. They provide
various levels of support and are highly
skilled at tailoring the information to both
the business and consumer audience.
In every area they target, the team arrange
for localised flyers to be distributed by their
engineers and Next Generation Access (NGA)
Champions-who are all passionate about
spreading the news about fibre broadband.
It doesn’t stop there, on offer are design
services to local groups, as well as region
specific brochures and collateral. All with the
aim of making residents aware that fibre
broadband is available and ready for
them to start enjoying the services and
speeds from a number of Communication
Providers .
If you are interested in working with
Openreach and want to tap into their
expertise in generating community
awareness of fibre broadband please
contact your regional partnership director
Trevor Higgins. [email protected]
or Jackie Hasted, General Manager, NGA
Demand Stimulation, Jackie.hasted@
openreach.co.uk.
Yorkshire and the Humber
intouch Autumn 2012
Breaking records: London 2012
BT put in an incredible performance
this summer to ensure that the
London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games were the most
connected Games ever. Plus it
brought the excitement of the
Games to a wider audience by
hosting numerous free events that
attracted millions of fans.
These activities have been noted by politicians
and business leaders, who named BT as the
company that has provided the greatest
corporate contribution to the success of
the Games (independent research by TLG/
Populus). In terms of greatest positive change
to a company’s reputation as a result of its
sponsorship, we were placed second.
As official communications services partner
of London 2012, we designed and delivered
a single, integrated communications network
– a first for a Summer Games – spanning 94
locations, with a critical Games-time service
availability of 99.999%. To put this in context,
three suppliers were used in Beijing to deliver
a network with a far smaller capacity.
During the Games:
•The official London 2012 website,
which we hosted, had more than 450
million visits – four times as many as
the Beijing Games website in 2008.
•Internet traffic over BT’s retail
broadband network increased by 38%
in Yorkshire (compared to normal
usage figures) on Tuesday 7 August as
Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee (who
are BT Ambassadors) won gold and
bronze medals.
•We provided services such as internet,
email, fixed-line telephony and
mobile services to LOCOG and the
27,500 accredited media.
•Our fibre-based network delivered TV
coverage from the majority of venues
to the International Broadcast Centre
for transmission across the world.
•We provided the Athletes Village with
the most advanced fibre broadband
in the UK, allowing the athletes to get
online at ultra-fast speeds for free.
As well as underpinning the delivery of the
Games, we have also been one of the most
active sponsors. More than five million people
watched the Games at BT-sponsored Live
Sites across the UK, and over one million
fans attended BT London Live at Hyde Park,
Victoria Park and Trafalgar Square. Around
70,000 fans watched Mo Farah’s 5,000 metre
win in Hyde Park, for example, while Team GB
and Paralympics GB medal winners appeared
at the venues to share their success with
enthusiastic audiences.
In addition, we put on dozens of free musical
performances, with major acts such as Blur,
the Specials and Snow Patrol thrilling huge
crowds in Hyde Park at the opening and
closing nights of the Olympic Games. Plus, in
the lead-up to the Games, we sponsored BT
River of Music, a major cultural event held
at six iconic venues along the Thames which
featured performers from 205 nations.
The company is also proud to have supported
numerous athletes over the years. These
include Jonnie Peacock, Hannah Cockcroft,
Oscar Pistorius and the Brownlee brothers, to
name but a few. Many of them are only just
becoming household names, and so might
have struggled without the financial support
we provided.
Seb Coe, Chairman, LOCOG,
said: “It is inconceivable that we
could have delivered the 2012
Games without BT on board.
We needed someone we could
trust and who could provide the
technical know-how and the
creative solutions to ensure the
London 2012 Games were the
very best they could be. BT gave
us all of this.”
John Anderson congratulates medal winning triathletes Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee on their return to their home town of Leeds.
Yorkshire and the Humber
intouch Autumn 2012
Openreach swells ranks with ex-armed forces personnel
As it prepares to deploy
even more fibre broadband
infrastructure across the UK,
Openreach is to recruit 400 extra
engineers, with most of the new
posts expected to be filled by
ex-armed forces personnel.
This will take the total number of
engineers hired in 2012 to more than
1,000, following the employment of
around 600 in the first half of the year.
is greatest – thereby providing greater
flexibility.
The new recruits will join a mobile
workforce, reacting quickly to changes in
service requirements from communications
providers and helping to tackle peaks
in demand for fibre broadband around
the country. Significantly, this workforce
is composed of engineers who aren’t
confined to one geography, but who are
instead prepared to work where the need
Over the past two years, Openreach has
taken on many hundreds of ex-armed
forces personnel, and has benefited
hugely from the skills, experience,
flexibility and enthusiasm they have
brought with them. It comes as no
surprise, then, that the business is keen
to fill many of these new roles with
similar candidates.
Leeds City Region hails BT’s investment in training
5-3-1 is an LEP initiative which aims to
help the area’s businesses and economy
grow by encouraging more companies to
invest in skills and training. Research shows
that companies that train are more likely
to succeed than those that dont, while
companies that dont train are more than
twice as likely to fail as those that do.
BT has an excellent reputation for
investing in skills and training. It
therefore comes as no surprise
that the Yorkshire and Humber
regional board are backing the
Leeds City region’s Local Enterprise
Partnership (LEP) 5-3-1 campaign,
which is urging local businesses
and organisations to do the same.
The Leeds City region’s website uses BT as
an example case study, highlighting our
links with education through our Work
Inspiration programme. Regional board
member Zulfi Hussain led our involvement
in the programme, which is co-ordinated by
Business in the Community (BITC) to provide
meaningful work experience for young
people.
We have been a keen supporter from the
start, with over 8,000 young people coming
to us for work experience since 2010. Plus
we have established various initiatives of
our own, including apprenticeship and
graduate recruitment programmes as well as
a scheme that encourages women to take up
engineering careers.
Zulfi feels Work Inspiration, which has
become an award-winning, flagship
programme for the company, has had
significant benefits for everyone involved.
“There is a perception among employers
that too many young people enter the
world of work lacking ‘employability skills’,
while young people tend to have little or no
understanding of their path into work or the
range of jobs open to them,” she said.
“We’ve been able to give young people
some real hands-on experience and practical
knowledge which we feel is invaluable as
they prepare to plan for their future.
“And it’s not just good for the youngsters
involved – it also helps BT people develop
and enhance their own skills by working
with young people from a very diverse range
of backgrounds. It’s good for our business,
good for our employees and good for young
people.”
To find out more about the campaign, and to
sign up, go to www.leedscityregion.gov.uk/
fivethreeone.htm