Full Fibre UK ISP Hyperoptic Pilot Low Bandwidth Smart Home Service

City-focused broadband ISP Hyperoptic, which has deployed gigabit-capable FTTP/B networks across parts of 43 UK towns and cities (e.g. large residential buildings / MDUs), has today launched a new “low-bandwidth” Proof of Concept (PoC) pilot to help connect “smart home equipment“. But homeowners won’t be able to harness the extra line.

Under the partnership with Sero, Cardiff Council and Wates Residential in Wales, Hyperoptic will deploy a second low-bandwidth line to each property that is connected to their gigabit-capable broadband network. The extra line will be “dedicated to support Sero’s smart equipment” and “will be inaccessible by the resident for internet access.”

The pilot itself will take place on the Aspen Grove development, which sits on the site of the former Eastern High School on Newport Road – part of the Council’s flagship Cardiff Living housing development scheme with Wates Residential.

This solution is said to remove the reliance on a resident needing to rely on their home broadband connection to make an external provider’s smart home technology work effectively. By running the applications on a separate line, the service can be managed completely separately by the housing or smart home technology provider.

Liam McAvoy, Hyperoptic’s MD of Business Development, said:

“The smart home technology market is set for huge growth, with exciting use cases that span climate control, EV charge points and remote healthcare applications. We are the first ISP to offer a bespoke secondary line that is dedicated to enabling smart home technology to work effectively. By offering this service, we are giving housing providers the reassurance and control they need to ensure that their smart home technologies can always work effectively.”

Cllr Lynda Thorne said:

“Not only is our Cardiff Living scheme at the former Eastern high site the largest development in the programme to date creating more than 200 new low-carbon homes for the city, it’s also the most innovative. Utilising state-of-the-art technologies, we are focussed on delivering homes of the future that can help reduce bills for both private residents and council tenants and minimise their carbon so it’s essential we have the infrastructure in place to support this smart technology.”

The Aspen Grove development will deliver 214 new low-carbon properties that will take energy performance standards to a new level as all of the homes will incorporate renewable technologies and smart energy management systems to significantly reduce the energy demand on the grid, as well as helping to tackle fuel poverty by significantly reducing energy bills.

The site will include 65 new council homes, 44 of which will be Community Living flats for older people and 21 two and three-bedroom houses. A further 149 properties will be for sale on the open market, with a small number being made available through the council’s FirstHomes Cardiff scheme for first time-buyers. Both council and sale housing will be built to the same energy performance standards.

Sadly, today’s announcement doesn’t say how fast the line is or offer much information on the technical network setup for it, but it does sound like an interesting service.

Hyperoptic’s network currently covers well over 600,000 premises (estimated) and they’ve previously expressed an ambition to reach 5 million UK premises by the end of 2024 (mostly in urban areas).