Broadband altnet Hyperoptic see UK losses hit £172.24m as debt strain grows

City-focused full fibre (FTTP/B) provider Hyperoptic, which claims to have built their gigabit broadband network to cover 2 million UK homes (mostly across blocks of flats / MDUs), has revealed that their losses for the year to 31st Dec 2025 increased to £172.24m and they’re trying to seek a solution to £98m in maturing debt.

Just to recap. Hyperoptic actually published a preview of their annual accounts back in July 2026, which revealed that the vertically integrated alternative network and retail ISP had seen revenues increase by 22% to £139m, while their customer base also jumped 18% to 440,000+. But they naturally opted to focus on the positives and not the negatives, which didn’t become apparent until their full accounts were released a few days ago.

As previously reported, the operator has been dealing with many of the same market strains as other altnets over the past few years, which has already caused some redundancies (here) and prompted them to focus more on commercialisation of what they’ve already built. But the provider is arguably in a better position than others as they have a more established network and stronger financials.

However, the full accounts reveal that company losses have risen to £172.24m (2024: £144.5m), while the average monthly number of employees, including directors, that worked for Hyperoptic during the latest year was 1,492 (down from 1,724 in 2024).

The results also note that Hyperoptic has so far drawn down £1.086bn of their existing c.£1.27bn facility (loans and debt) and will need to find additional funding within the next 12 months in order to avoid the usual “material uncertainty” over their future (a lot of this is par for the course in such accounts).

On top of that the results state Hyperoptic are now in the “advanced stages” of negotiating an extension to the repayment deadlines for more than £98m in debt maturing at the end of next month. But as we said earlier, Hyperoptic is in a healthier situation than others, with the operator indicating that they’re confident of being able to strengthen their finances, including by reductions in discretionary spending and broader cost-cutting.

A spokesperson for Hyperoptic said:

“Hyperoptic’s 2025 results show the significant momentum in our business, with revenue, customer numbers, homes passed and EBITDA all growing strongly. This has continued into 2026, with the business on track to deliver over £110 million EBITDA in the next full year. As the UK’s first alt-net, we are well-positioned to make the most of the infrastructure advantage we have built through fifteen years of investing in our network.”

The provider is also imminently expected to finally begin selling broadband packages over Openreach’s rival full fibre network (here) – starting via an additional 1.8 million homes passed (initial coverage), which was originally due to start in early 2026 but has suffered some delays.

One other issue for Hyperoptic to contend with is over the question of how they respond to rival networks that are increasingly able to offer multi-gigabit broadband speeds (in some cases up to c.8Gbps). But this could be a challenge as some parts of their infrastructure, such as the older FTTB parts, are in need of a big upgrade to keep pace. Not such an easy thing to do when money is tight.

Finally, there’s the endlessly tedious question of what role, if any, Hyperoptic could yet play in wider market consolidation. The operator’s network is quite MDU focused and patchy, which makes it a bit of a difficult fit in the wider market. Plus, as a sizeable player, there are only a limited number of potential partners that make sense. Time will tell.