Hyperoptic’s next-gen fibre broadband is coming to Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds, bringing gigabit speeds to bandwidth-hungry northerners.
The London-based fibre ISP will be delivering speeds of up to 1Gbps to a number of apartments and property developments across the three cities later this year.
Hyperoptic’s services start at £12.50/month and are symmetrical, meaning you’ll get the same speed for downloads and uploads. While there’s the option to add a phone package, there’s no charge for line rental and there’s no monthly usage limit.
Hyperoptic’s connections are FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) – full fibre lines that guarantee you the headline speeds advertised – there’s no ‘up to’ tag next to any of Hyperoptic’s services.
Managing director Dana Tobak says this differentiates Hyperoptic from the fibre-based services of other ISPs which use a copper line to complete the last mile connection to subscribers homes. Tobak said: “We are committed to providing UK consumers, left lagging in the slow-lane, with a real broadband alternative that is the best in the market today in both terms of speed and online experience. You get what you pay for.”
Hyperoptic’s packages cost £12.50/month for a 20Mbps service and £25/month for a 100Mbps service. The hero 1Gbps (1,000Mbps) product costs £50/month.
Exactly where Hyperoptic will be setting up shop in the north of England hasn’t been disclosed yet. Like Google Fiber in the US – and Gigaclear in the rural UK – Hyperoptic chooses where to deploy its services based on demand.
Once enough residents have registered their interest, Hyperoptic arranges the installation, working with the building owners and managers.
Spokespeople told Recombu that names of property companies and specific developments couldn’t be released today, but mentioned that the first locations should be announced shortly. Tobak added: “We are building the consumers-choice broadband company, a trusted utility that our customers can and do depend upon.”
Mancunians, Liverpudlians and Loiners who want to express their interest can register with Hyperoptic here.
Hyperoptic was formed in 2011 by Tobak and chairman Boris Ivanovic, who had previously co-founded Be Broadband. Initially operating in London, Hyperoptic launched services in Reading, Bristol and Cardiff this February. Last year Hyperoptic announced plans to provide services in a total of eleven UK cities and sign up 500,000 subscribers in the next four years.
While Hyperoptic’s speeds can outpace anything currently offered by the likes of BT and Virgin Media, both ISPs have demonstrated that their networks can provide gigabit speeds. When these will become available to their customers is another matter.
BT is currently connecting the majority of premises on its Openreach network to FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) lines, providing top speeds of 80Mbps and a smaller number of locations to FTTP, delivering top speeds of 330Mbps. Virgin Media’s latest round of speed boosts are currently rolling out across its network, delivering top speeds of 152Mbps.
Image: Jared Tarbell/Flickr
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