back to article George Soros pumps £50m into fibre-gobbling ISP Hyperoptic

Hyperoptic - a relatively new player in the UK's ISP market - confirmed today that it had received a massive cash injection of £50m from investors to help the company expand its fibre-to-the-home business. The telco, which currently offers 1 Gbit/s fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) technology to Londoners, was founded in 2010 by Boris …

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  1. Jay Zelos
    Thumb Up

    I asked these guys to come to Norwich a few months ago, but sadly it seems they are London only, maybe now that may change. 1 Gbps with low latancy would mean each room in the house could stream its own HDTV channel.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Latency has no effect on TV streaming. How many people live in your house?

  2. Terry Barnes

    Maths?

    £50M divided by 500K homes is £100 an install. That doesn't seem likely to be achievable unless they're going exclusively for buildings with multiple households - flats.

    It'll be fantastic if they can pull this off, but something about the numbers doesn't ring true - what is missing from the story?

    1. Russ Pitcher

      Re: Maths?

      You're not wrong, but I'll bet that there's an installation fee, just like every other provider. Another £75 per installation would swell the coffers significantly and I wouldn't be surprised if the business is expected to run at a loss for a while.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maths?

      ISTR from earlier coverage that the focus was on multiple occupancy properties. That and the urban focus gives you very high densities, so I don't think that the numbers need be incorrect, although I wonder if that cost is relying on flats to be pre-equipped with suitable ducting, Cat 5 or similar.

      Suburban types need not expect this outfit to come knocking on their door anytime soon, although a bit more competition may force VM and BT to up their game.

    3. NDell

      Re: Maths?

      You are wrong!

      They are an ISP who are charging both a monthly line rental and installation (pricing on their website).

      Whilst I am sure some of the £50 Million will go on offers and the like, it certainly isn't specifically 50M divided by 500k... I am guessing most of it will go on core infrastructure/fibre to new areas.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maths?

      They could always take the approach Pipex took when they invented mass market DSL broadband in the UK over a decade ago: recover (part of) the installation costs by adding it into the monthly subscription. Then don't reduce the subscription when the installation is paid off. Might work very nicely for HYPEroptic if customers stay for long enough (and why wouldn't they, if the service is good enough and the price is right, as it originally was with Pipex).

      HYPEroptic seem more likely to make a success of it than former alleged 'fibre to the home via the drain' ISP, H2O Networks (see also FibreCity and their close friends CityFibre). I wonder how the SFO are getting on with their investigations:

      http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/4574-funders-for-h2o-networks-face-serious-fraud-office-investigation.html

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Cone to Hull

    We only have Karoo/Kingston comms, no virgin, no bt, no sky, no competition!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The great thing about London: Fibre Optic is just like rats... you never more than a few meters from one.

    That means Fibre is cheap in London. Not so else where. Don't expect them to wire up your town any time soon.

    Yes they prefer multi dwelling units.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not true. I live in London and my exchange is only just about to be FTTC enabled. Even then it's by no means certain it will come to my street.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why somebody would want such large bandwidth is beyond my understanding.

    10 MB/s is sufficient for a few HD streams. Not everybody in the house will be on the internet at the same time.

    Most people use BSkyB broadcast tv most of the time. Many channels and programs are repeated often.

    Unless you want to download more pirate movies than you can watch then its pointless.

    Hyperoptic is going to have to think of a way to keep RIAA of its back.

    1. Return To Sender
      Go

      > "Why somebody would want such large bandwidth is beyond my understanding"...

      Actually, despite more years in the industry than I really care to admit, I still find myself asking the same question, and it inevitably turns out that something appears to provide the answer "ah, that's why". LAN to the desktop? Why? 10Mb switched to the desktop? Why? 100Mb... you get the picture.

      It seems to be a genuine case of if you build it, they will come. I still recall when putting video conferencing on the general (not dedicated) company LAN was considered A Big Thing, now it's pretty much taken for granted even on mobile.Yes, techniques have improved, but it's mainly the higher bandwidth at cheaper cost that drives these things. So big bandwidth - bring it on!

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