Hyperoptic Limited is a British

telecommunications Telecommunication, often used in its plural form or abbreviated as telecom, is the transmission of information over a distance using electronic means, typically through cables, radio waves, or other communication technologies. These means of ...

company that provides digital telephone and internet services. Founded in April 2011, it is headquartered at Kings House,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Hyperoptic owns and operates its own Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) network in the United Kingdom. As of July 2024, it had passed 1.7 million premises and had 340,000 connected customers.

History

Hyperoptic was incorporated with

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the British Government that maintains the Company register, register of companies, employs the company registrars and is responsible for Incorporation (business), incorporating all forms of Company, co ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

as bcube Limited on 13 April 2010 by Dana Tobak, becoming known as Hyperoptic Limited on 6 April 2011. Boris Ivanovic joined Tobak as co-founder and chairman of Hyperoptic, with the pair having previously founded Be Broadband together in 2005, a business they later sold to O2 in June 2006 for £50 million. Hyperoptic was launched in response to market demand for

gigabit The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communication. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represented as ...

enabled consumer broadband, with the UK average at the time of inception being just 7Mbps – ranking the UK in 25th place for global broadband speeds. It launched on 14 September 2011, rolling out its own full fibre network to large complexes of flats in

, with plans to reach one million homes by extending its services to large UK cities and towns by the end of 2017. The company was unsuccessful in reaching its target of one million premises, having only reached half a million premises by the end of 2018. It ultimately reached the one million milestone in November 2022. By March 2013, Hyperoptic had installed its fibre optic network in 20,000 homes in London. Two months later, in May, the company received an equity investment commitment of £50 million led by Quantum Strategic Partners, a private investment vehicle managed by

Soros Fund Management Soros Fund Management is a privately held American investment management firm. It is currently structured as a family office, but formerly was a hedge fund. The firm was founded in 1970 by George Soros and, in 2010, was reported to be one of th ...

. Following this, it announced its intention to expand to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

. In August 2018, Hyperoptic announced it had raised £250 million in funding from eight banks to extend its full-fibre network to two million homes and businesses by 2022, with plans to cover 5 million premises by 2025. In November 2018, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund,

Mubadala Investment Company Mubadala Investment Company PJSC (), or simply Mubadala, is a state-owned global investment firm that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Developme ...

, acquired a minority stake in Hyperoptic. At the time of the acquisition, the company's network covered 500,000 premises across 30 UK cities. On October 14, 2019, it was announced that investment firm KKR had bought a majority stake in Hyperoptic from funds managed by Newlight Partners LP and

. By November 2022, Hyperoptic had finally hit its milestone of passing one million premises - five years later than it had intended. Having only passed one million premises by the end of 2022, it pushed its target of reaching two million premises back to 2023, before again pushing it back to 2024. In June 2023, it was announced 6% of Hyperoptic's workforce were facing redundancy, following a shift in focus from rolling out its network to connecting customers. Hyperoptic was one of the top 5 fibre network companies in the UK by network size in March 2023, covering 1.4 million homes and servicing 300,000 customers by the end of the year. In July 2024, a further £150m loan was secured from the UK Investment Bank (UKIB), bringing its debt facility to more than £1.1bn https://www.telecomtv.com/content/access-evolution/hyperoptic-lands-another-150m-to-fuel-its-fibre-dream-50786/

References

External links

* {{Official website Internet service providers of the United Kingdom Telecommunications companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham Kohlberg Kravis Roberts companies