Hyperoptic FTTP Network Now Live In Sheffield

Hyperoptic has connected the first buildings to its fibre to the premise (FTTP) network in Sheffield, offering speeds of up to 1Gbps to homes and businesses.

Two developments in the centre of the Steel City have been switched on – Pearl Works and Mandale House – and more properties are being added to the network. According to Ofcom, the average broadband speed in Sheffield is 15.4Mbps whereas the national average is 22.8Mbps – significantly less than the 1Gbps FTTP can offer.

Hyperoptic operates a number of FTTP networks across the country, reaching 100,000 properties, and as with other cities, it is targeting high density areas such as apartment blocks and business parks as well as premises that register their interest on the firm’s website.

Sheffield FTTP

“We announced last October that we had chosen Sheffield as one of our first hyper-cities. Since then we have been working hard implementing the infrastructure and engaging developers and building owners to schedule installation,” said Tim Huxtable, national team manager at Hyperoptic.

“We have experienced amazing demand from the residents of Sheffield so we are thrilled to be satisfying it and bringing them world-class broadband speeds. Sheffield is a strategic city for Hyperoptic; we will be investing millions over the next couple of years.”

FTTP offers faster speeds than the Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology, which currently accounts for the majority of the UK’s superfast broadband infrastructure, but uses copper for the final few hundred metres of a connection, meaning speeds can drop dramatically the further away a property is from an exchange.

Hyperoptic says just one percent of the UK can receive FTTP, a fraction of the estimated 80 percent that can receive superfast broadband. However rivals CityFibre, TalkTalk and Sky are working on rival FTTP infrastructure, while BT has plans to rollout ‘ultrafast’ broadband to millions of homes through a combination of FTTP and G.Fast technology, which speeds up copper connections.

Gigaclear, another FTTP provider, recently announced plans to offer 5Gbps to rural properties connected to its networks.