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Story URL: http://networks.silicon.com/broadband/0,39024661,39163934,00.htm

BT struggling to keep pace with fat pipe demand
Engineers working round the clock...

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Wednesday 08 November 2006

BT engineers are to work round the clock to keep up with rapid growth in the broadband market.

The shift to a 24-hour working schedule within BT Openreach - an offshoot of BT - comes after an announcement that Openreach has seen a 420 per cent increase in the number of unbundled lines since January 2006.

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A BT spokeswoman told silicon.com: "Order volumes are driven by the LLU [local loop unbundling] operators so it's difficult for OpenReach to anticipate future broadband figures."

The spokeswoman added the growth in broadband has exceeded expectations and the telco is recruiting 400 apprentices to be trained as telecoms engineers at Openreach to help meet mounting demand.