Hyperoptic Begins 1Gbps FTTB Broadband Roll-out in Edinburgh

Earlier this year Hyperoptic announced that they’d be extending their 1000Mbps (1Gbps) capable Fibre-to-the-Premise / Building (FTTP/B) based ultrafast broadband network to 7 extra “hyper-cities” in the UK (here) and today the first buildings have now started to go live in Edinburgh (Scotland).

The fibre optic service generally focuses upon connecting homes inside big apartment buildings (i.e. Multi-Dwelling-Units with at least 50 units) or office blocks. The first to benefit in Edinburgh will be residents of the Platinum Point development on the Firth of Forth in Newhaven. Apparently nearly 50% of existing residents have already subscribed to the service, although we’re not given a specific figure.

Similar installations are also taking place in buildings across the city and the ISP said that they would be “investing millions in broadband infrastructure across Edinburgh over the next couple of years, with the aim of connecting hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses over the next couple of years.”

Hyperoptic is also deploying their ultrafast service to homes and businesses in parts of London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol, Reading, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Birmingham, Newcastle and Brighton. On top of that they’re beginning work to roll-out in Portsmouth, Watford, Leicester, Southampton, Slough and Woking.

Fergus Ewing, Scottish Connectivity Secretary, said:

“We want Scotland to become a world class digital nation. A key part of this is future-proofing our digital infrastructure and that is why we have committed to providing superfast broadband to 100% of premises in Scotland by 2021.

Commercial investment will play a huge part in delivering this commitment, and I welcome Hyperoptic’s announcement that Edinburgh businesses and residents are now able to benefit from gigabit broadband – the fastest broadband speed available in the UK.”

Tim Huxtable, Hyperoptic’s National Team Manager, added:

“The feedback following our announcement that we were coming to Edinburgh has been phenomenal – there is a huge appetite for our gigabit connectivity, which is over 128 times faster than traditional ASDL speeds.

As a nation we are becoming ever more reliant on fast and reliable access to the Internet; buffering and peak time slowdowns just get more frustrating and its well documented that people would now actively avoid moving into a property with slow speeds.

When a building has Hyperoptic it is a real point of difference – the developers we work with are all thrilled with resident feedback. Once a resident goes Hyperoptic they never want to go back!”

Hyperoptic has tended to be quite coy with their premises passed figures for the United Kingdom, although their long-held goal is still to cover 500,000 premises by 2018 2019 and this is being supported via a recent £21m loan from the European Investment Bank (here); not to mention that 2013 injection of £50m from Quantum Strategic Partners Ltd. (here).

Customers typically pay from £15 per month (£22 after the first 9 months) for their entry-level unlimited 20Mbps (1Mbps upload) package with a free installation, which rises to £20 per month (£35 after the first 9 months) for a symmetrical speed of 100Mbps or £30 per month (£60 after the first 9 months) for their top 1000Mbps package. A router and 12 month contract are included, although other options with a phone and or 1 month contract are also available.

However Hyperoptic no longer has the urban ultrafast fibre optic market all to themselves, with BT now rolling out their own 1Gbps capable FTTP broadband network to 2 million UK premises by 2020 and Virgin Media aiming to achieve the same with their 300Mbps+ FTTP by 2019. However Hyperoptic’s affordable pricing does give them an edge via the faster tiers.