4. What are your thoughts on the latest 40-100Mbps services from Virgin Media and BT, especially in terms of price and features; how much of a competitive threat are they for Hyperoptic in London and other cities?

Hyperoptic (Dana Pressman Tobak):

Our mission is to enable consumers to optimise the value technology can bring to their lives on a day-to-day basis, without being hampered by a slow broadband connectivity.   With this in mind, we support and commend both BT and Virgin’s commitment to bringing any superfast services to market.  But, we know we can do better.

As a business with serious and ambitious growth plans, of course we take all competition seriously. That said, we genuinely feel the Hyperoptic product is the best on the UK market as well as offering the best value for the customer.  Anyone familiar with Be will know that customer service is absolutely at the heart of what we do.  We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t believe the Hyperoptic customer experience will be superior to any others currently available in the UK.

5. The High Court of Justice in London recently ruled in favour of Rights Holders by forcing BT Retail to block a website (Newzbin2) that facilitated internet copyright infringement (piracy). Does your ISP take any measures to block/censor such website already and what are your thoughts about the issue in general; do you expect the outcome to affect your provider?

Hyperoptic (Dana Pressman Tobak):

Hyperoptic absolutely supports all regulatory authorities and Government bodies in curbing and counteracting illegal activities.  We have a collaborative culture and would happily co-operate if needed at any time in the future.  That said, we are firm believers in “innocent until proven guilty” and currently have no intention of proactively blocking any sites.

6. Current estimates predict that the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the UK and Europe (aka - RIPE NCC) will exhaust its last remaining IPv4 internet addresses during either March of February 2012. In your opinion, what will this mean for UK based internet providers; especially those that fail to adapt, and are you fully prepared for its replacement (IPv6)?

Hyperoptic (Dana Pressman Tobak):

It’s relatively early days in the IPv4 depletion phase even though the warnings have been ongoing for years.  It will likely create open market situation where companies and providers with spare IPv4 addresses will be encouraged to release them to those that need them prior to the point of ‘emergency’.

We originally intended to roll out IPv6 along with IPv4 in our initial phase but found that there would be few benefits to customers and would require the implementation of immature technologies into the network.  We are testing our IPv6 solution along with our partners and will likely release IPv6 addresses in the new year.  Our network design, however, is ‘next-generation’ and is consistent with IPv6 and therefore no significant changes will be required when we do do the change-over.  This will ensure no unnecessary distractions when we need to be focused on our growth.

7. Fujitsu, Virgin Media and TalkTalk announced a new plan in 2011 to rollout an alternative open wholesale rural broadband/telephone network for 5 Million UK homes by using, at least in part, BT's own existing cable ducts and telegraph poles (PIA) infrastructure. What are your thoughts on this and do you think that the project will ever become a reality?

Hyperoptic (Dana Pressman Tobak):

We absolutely recognise the value of broadband for rural economies and appreciate the focus on providing broadband to them.  These companies are clearly a committed team of players and it’s great they are looking at rolling out superfast broadband to these often ignored communities.  Cost, of course, will be the biggest challenge.. 

Within 10-15 years, the entire UK will be connected to fibre.  Today, however, I believe we are still a long way from this goal.

Will the project ever become a reality?  I wish them luck for the sake of the communities, but I’ll be investing my money in Hyperoptic.

8. The UK government is known to be considering an extension to its existing Data Retention (i.e. website and email access log) powers, which could potentially result in all UK ISPs being forced to log customer activity on social networking sites, multiplayer games and instant messaging services (the data would be used by the police and other authorities). Would your ISP be able to cope with such a requirement and is it viable or even ethical?

Hyperoptic (Dana Pressman Tobak):

This is such a big question. It calls into question about where the line is drawn between regulatory authority and personal freedom.  We understand that online activity is an increasing valuable tool in investigating criminal activities and will support any final regulation that is passed. Of course, the full proposal may impact our network and our customers’ experience and we would look to implement a solution that would minimise that impact.  In terms ethics, I believe it’s a difficult and very personal discussion not too dissimilar to the use of constant CCTV.