BT executive says Brexit is slowing superfast broadband rollout

Britain’s ability to roll out superfast broadband across the country is being slowed by the “tortuous” process of recruiting workers from the EU following Brexit, the head of BT’s networking business has warned. Clive Selley, chief executive of BT’s Openreach, the division leading the rollout of fibre optic networks to homes, said countries such as Portugal and Spain have plenty of people with the necessary skills to accelerate the delivery of superfast broadband. “They want the work, we want the skills and the Home Office have a process that is tortuous,” Selley said in an interview. “We are constraining the rate of fibre build in the UK through the process.” The delivery of superfast broadband is central to the Conservative government’s pledge to bridge the digital divide and level up the economy. Its last manifesto outlined plans to deliver “full fibre and gigabit-capable broadband to every home and business across the UK by 2025”. The government is now aiming to have 99 percent of homes connected by 2030. Selley said it was “quite realistic” and “achievable” for Openreach to lay fibre optic lines to 97 percent of the country’s homes by 2030, but that it would require greater support and subsidies from the government. Openreach has committed to spend £12 billion to connect 25 million of the UK’s 32 million homes by the end of 2026. The rollout, which began in 2018, has so far reached 7.6 million homes.