Wins for UK ISP Hyperoptic at 2018 World Communications Awards

Congratulations are in order after “full fibre” (FTTP/B) broadband provider Hyperoptic scooped two big wins at the annual 2018 World Communications Awards last night, which saw the ISP secure top spots for both the “Broadband Pioneer” and “CEO of the Year” awards. The latter went to MD Dana Tobak.

Pioneer is certainly right. Hyperoptic have been bringing 1Gbps broadband connections to large urban apartments and office buildings since around 2011, albeit with significantly fewer resources than Openreach (BT) and at a much lower price point. In fact until recently the ISP was the largest provider of Gigabit fibre packages for consumers, although Openreach’s FTTP coverage does now appear to have surpassed them.

Today Hyperoptic’s network covers well over 500,000 premises (mostly homes) in multiple UK cities (expected to reach parts of 50 cities and towns by Q1 2019) and last year they set a new target of 2 million premises by 2022, as well as a future aspiration for 5 million by 2025 (here). Unlike many others in this field, they already have something more than press releases to show for their efforts.

In the end Hyperoptic was awarded ‘Broadband Pioneer’ as recognition for the aforementioned innovation it has demonstrated with its network rollout. The judges added that “Hyperoptic is to be commended on its dynamism and is a great credit to the UK broadband industry.” The judges similarly said that Dana is “a true disruptor, taking on some huge industry giants and making a significant change to the UK market in a relatively short amount of time.”

Steve Holford, Chief Customer Officer at Hyperoptic, said:

“The last 12 months have seen several milestones for Hyperoptic, significantly expanding our coverage and having developed the largest and fastest growing gigabit network in the UK.

Our CEO’s drive, insight and passion has been the key to our success. Dana’s leadership and vision to redefine connectivity and Gigabit Britain has been phenomenal and now the whole market is now following in our footsteps.”

Long may it continue.

Full List of WCA 2018 Winners

The UX Award
Telia Carrier

Digital Lifestyle Award
PCCW Global

Best Enterprise Service
Orange Business Services

The Cloud Infrastructure Award
Colt Technology Services

The NFV Innovation Award
Verizon

Most Innovative IoT Solution
Vodafone UK

The Innovation Award – Operator
Deutsche Telekom AG

The Innovation Award – Vendor
Openet

The Social Contribution Award
Smart Communications

The Broadband Pioneer Award
Hyperoptic Ltd

Best Network Transformation Initiative
China Mobile Hong Kong (CMHK) & Huawei

Digital Transformation Award
HKT in partnership with Huawei

The Platform Award
Cisco Jasper

Smart Cities Award
CBNL

Regional Wholesale Operator
Liquid Telecom

Best Wholesale Operator
Telia Carrier

5G Leadership Award
KT

Best Operator in an Emerging Market
Orange

Best Operator
NTT Communications Corporation

The Users’ Choice Award
AT&T Communications

Woman in Telecoms Award
Catherine Michel, CTO, Sigma Systems

CTO of the Year
Winner – Howard Watson, BT

CEO of the Year
Dana Tobak, Hyperoptic