Redundancies Expected as UK Broadband ISP Hyperoptic Adjust Strategy
City-focused broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which claims to have already deployed their full fibre (FTTP/B) network to cover 1.9 million UK homes passed, has informed ISPreview that they’re making some “modest adjustments to our teams working on multi-unit residential buildings” and as a result there may be a few redundancies. Less than 5% of employees are said to be affected.
The operator, which is home to 400,000 active subscribers (9th Jun 2025) and at the start of this year suffered a round of redundancies (here), is currently still going through a strategic shift that has seen their own network build switch to focus more on commercialisation. At the same time, they’re also working to harness Openreach’s growing national FTTP network in order to reach other parts of the UK (here), which will go live during early 2026.
The main development today is that it looks like a further 5% of the provider’s employees may be at risk of redundancy just before Christmas, which we estimate may impact around 70 jobs and seems to reflect their evolving build strategy toward multi-unit residential properties (MDUs). This largely reflects the fact that their own fibre build (on-net) is due to reach completion once it hits the c.2 million homes passed mark.
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From early 2026, “new activity will be guided by customer demand, helping us focus our investment where it can make the most meaningful difference,” said a spokesperson for the operator. In short, they’re continuing to switch their focus from network build to commercialisation of what already exists. But there’s also a little bit more to it than that.
A Spokesperson for Hyperoptic told ISPreview:
“As Hyperoptic matures, and with most of our planned build now complete, we are evolving our multi-unit residential build strategy. From early 2026, new activity will be guided by customer demand, helping us focus our investment where it can make the most meaningful difference.
In addition, we recognise the importance of the Building Safety Regulations and are fully committed to meeting all compliance requirements. These regulations have introduced new processes for connecting buildings over seven storeys or 18 metres, and we are in constructive discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government to ensure we have the clarity needed to continue delivering safe, compliant connections for residents.
With these developments, we are proposing modest adjustments to our teams working on multi-unit residential buildings, with fewer than five per cent of employees affected.
Hyperoptic continues to evolve and expand its network, progressing strongly with new-build developments and strengthening coverage in existing areas. We remain focused on delivering our strategic goals for 2026 and continuing our growth trajectory, both on our own network and through the launch of services on the Openreach network.
Our ambition remains unchanged: to exceed 2 million homes passed and surpass the 500,000-customer milestone.”
The company’s most recent accounts (here), which covered the period to the end of 2024, show they generated maiden adjusted earnings of £2.7m in 2024 (vs a loss of £4.7m in 2023) and gross profit rose 20% to £87m. The operator’s statutory pre-tax losses for the year stood at £144m, albeit roughly similar to 2023. Revenues also grew by 22% to £114m and their customer base jumped 20%, while EBITDAi increased significantly to £24m.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Things aren’t good at Hyperoptic. 1Gb customers have been getting 500Mb and support don’t want to know and socials engagement has evaporated
I thought I was only one with this issue. HO Customer service is MIA. It’s odd to get 500 down and 900 up.
I call this a “NTL/Telewest” pivot.
Deliver high speed when no-one else can, charge lots of money, and then deliver barely passable service as cheaply as possible
Focus on properties where you are likely the only option available or the other options lower quality/less certain (MDU).
Which will work until Openreach gets their act together (which is what is happening to Virgin)
I am really surprised about this as I thought Hyperoptics business model would have been the most cost productive on all the FTTP ISPs – Bring Fibre cable to a large block of flats housing potentially up to a hundred people and then reap potentially up to a hundred new customers inside of them as Opeanreach and other ISPs don’t want the hassle of dealing with large flats like this.
Nobody knows who they are, I was in an MDU a few years back with over hundred flats, inside their cabinet they only had two flats connected.
Unlike Community Fibre, HO have also covered quite few terraced houses e.g. in Fulham in recent months.
Telecoms market is so unstable at the moment. Really not a good place to work at the minute
I don’t think any industry is great at the minute. Everyone is trying to screw every last penny out of everyone else. The country basically seems to be in a bit of a doom loop.
@Big Dave, you are so right and also, companies want to get as much as they can from us, cutting staff and increasing workload. I am getting to the stage of saying stuff it.
Re the doom loop, despite the recent political comedy, economically things are actually improving. Average household disposable income is the highest it’s ever been, employment is at a 6 year high, government borrowing us starting to fall, home ownership is actually rising. Also crime is historical low and life expectancy us improving.
I tried to get hyperoptic installed earlier this year. The installs were an absolute failure and they kept sending engineers without a cherry picker and who weren’t cherry-picker trained. The support is pretty much incompetent so I’m glad I didn’t end up with them. You get what you pay for.
It’s in the name HYPEroptic. Saw them a mile off years ago!
The comment in the article from Hyperopic highlighting the additional requirements for MDUs that are more than 7 stories or 18m high is noteworthy.
If Hyperoptic who are MDU specialists are having difficulties with the current regs then the rest of the industry will also be very much in the same boat and probably with less clue on options to resolve.
Mark, are you able to do some coverage on the persistent low speeds being experienced by many Hyperoptic customers? Customers on the 1Gb package are getting persistent speeds, even during off-peak times, of 600mbit down/1Gb up. Hyperoptic support refuse to do anything about it, or even acknowledge it is a problem.