Fibrus: Construction jobs at risk at NI broadband firm

Fibrus has been involved in a major contract to improve broadband access in rural areas

Fibrus, the broadband firm, has started a redundancy consultation with its construction staff.

The company has not said how many jobs are under threat.

The move comes as the firm approaches the completion of its network roll out in Northern Ireland.

It said: "The company plans to continue to grow its customer facing areas while the workforce in network construction and relevant supporting areas is expected to be reduced."

In 2020 Fibrus won the contract to provide Project Stratum - a government-backed scheme to improve rural broadband across Northern Ireland.

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The total funding for Project Stratum was £165m, with £150m coming from the confidence-and-supply agreement deal signed between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Conservative Party in 2017.

The remaining £15m came from Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.

That project is due to be completed by March of this year while another project in England is at an earlier stage.

The firm said: "In light of the imminent completion of its roll out in Northern Ireland, the company has begun a consultation with its staff on the roles that will be affected due to this programme being completed.

"The focus of the company now will be to continue with its aggressive customer acquisition plan, with the company already servicing some 70,000 customers to date, a growth of over 40,000 in the past twelve months."