This expanded partnership follows CityFibre and Kelly Group achieving a 91 per cent ‘Right First Time’ (RFT) score for customer connections across the country.
Kelly Group’s preferred supplier status will enable it to scale its operations nationwide and to undertake customer connections on behalf of CityFibre’s ISP customers.
As a direct result of the partnership, over 1,000 jobs including up to 920 engineers, team manager roles, new to field coaches, technical trainers and logistics will be created by Kelly Group to fulfil the rapidly increasing volume of customer installations.
Greg Mesch, chief executive officer at CityFibre, said, “We are delighted to be extending our partnership with Kelly Group and working with them to make sure people up and down the country can take advantage of full fibre as quickly and as smoothly as possible.
“At the centre of our nationwide rollout is our tireless focus on the installation journey which is now setting a new benchmark for customer satisfaction in our industry.”
Tim Kelly, chairman of the Kelly Group, added, “Our proven track record in delivering volume quality connections will ensure we will be a key partner with CityFibre on their journey to provide full fibre connectivity to millions of homes across the UK.
“We have an excellent working relationship and partnership with CityFibre and very much look forward to this continuing for years to come.”
To support Kelly Group’s recruitment plans the company will work with various agencies including Route 2 Work, a specialist in identifying candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds. The internal recruitment team at Kelly Group will also target former military personnel through the Career Transition Partnership run by the Ministry of Defence.
Successful candidates will attend an Installation Training Course at one of Kelly Group’s training centres in Brimsdown, Nuneaton or St Helens. During this course they will attain overhead and underground safety qualifications, Streetworks 01 qualification, PIA accreditations, CityFibre Installation Training and Customer Service Training. Kelly Group has forecast a total group headcount of circa 3,800 heads by the end of 2022.
CityFibre’s rollout has now passed more than 2m premises. Over 1.8m of these are ready for service across 67 metropolitan areas and more than 30 ISPs have launched services over the network.