Garner 'key to rural fibre broadband', says BT boss

The Leader of BT has hailed the arrival of Joe Garner as the new Chief Executive Officer of Openreach, the telecommunications giant's fibre broadband service.

Gavin Paterson explained that Mr Garner's experience of running a huge regulated company like HSBC would mean he had a lot to offer in terms of facilitating further fibre broadband rollouts in rural areas all over the UK.

He said: "He will ensure that Openreach continues to play a vital role in supporting businesses, consumers and communities the length and breadth of the country.”

The size of the workforce at HSBC is also something that Mr Paterson pinpointed as an advantage. He admitted that resourcing various departments to work on simultaneous projects all over the country is an extremely complicated role to fulfil, but remains confident the newly appointed Openreach boss is up to the task.

BT will be continuing to collaborate with the government in an effort to bring fibre optic broadband to millions of premises during 2014.