BT is to recruit an extra 400 engineers to help with the roll-out of fibre broadband across the UK.

The firms Openreach division will recruit mainly ex-armed forces personnel, taking the total of new engineers recruited this year to more than 1,000.

Olivia Garfield, chief executive of Openreach, said: These are challenging economic times so Im delighted to be able to recruit these extra engineers.

Fibre broadband will be vital to the future health of the UK. It has the potential to transform the economy and help create thousands of jobs.

Our engineers are playing a critical role by deploying infrastructure that will underpin the economy for many years to come.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: This is good news not only for the 400 people who secure one of the new jobs but for the whole of the country. BT is creating jobs while rolling-out the digital infrastructure UK businesses need to grow.

Digital technology is fundamental to the way we live our lives and the way we do business, which is why we want the UK to have the best and the fastest superfast broadband in Europe by 2015.