Hyperoptic

Challenge

Based in West London, Hyperoptic is a fibre-based Internet service provider and the first company in the UK to deploy gigabit broadband services to consumers.

In 2010 the market had developed to a point where it felt the time was right to offer fibre. BT’s investment, driven by government and Ofcom pressure to increase coverage nationally as quickly as possible, along with technological developments meant that the cost of implementing the necessary infrastructure had almost halved since 2008.

As well as this, customers had become more aware of the reality of broadband speeds and the impact this has on activities such as downloading files, and were more aware of the increasing number of products and services becoming available online. Having achieved its initial implementation targets, Hyperoptic decided it was time to formalise the technology partnerships that would support this next phase of its expansion.

Solution

The company approached several leading vendors including Huawei. Having spent considerable time evaluating different aspects of each bid, Hyperoptic saw service competitiveness and the desire to work with it as key. Right from the start Huawei was very engaged, putting in sufficient resources to ensure a strong and tested technical design, all within the presale phase. Not only was it very competitive on price, the commercial conditions, the flexibility on volumes and the equipment that it offered showed that it was willing and flexible enough to be the right partner to grow with Hyperoptic.

The approach taken in buildings or sites is relatively simple and consists of several blocks of Huawei’s S5300 switch and carrier equipment, sourced through the enterprise team. 24/48 port switches are deployed with cat 5 cabling down from each flat to each distribution point, and then fibre is used to connect each node together. This is enhanced by the 5700 unit to connect to the parent.

In 2013, the company had its first deployment using Huawei equipment. It proved to outperform Hyperoptic’s existing technology, improving the utilisation of leased lines and residential lines in the aggregation layer.

Value

Hyperoptic has now arrived at a new stage in its relationship with Huawei. Having built a very solid foundation right from the top of its organisation to the people accepting deliveries into the warehouses, the right framework has been created for both parties to work together for further growth. The key benefits of working with Huawei are not just restricted to operational goals, but encompass points of strategic focus for the future provision of new services. The flexible approach taken by Huawei in its partnering approach has aided the swift knowledge transfer required to support future implementation by the Hyperoptic team, supported by a streamlined distribution channel and providing realistic pricing that benefits both parties in the long term.

The strong partnership between Hyperoptic and Huawei ensured that this project was successful. Huawei joined Hyperoptic at the right time to support it in expanding its footprint across new UK cities in line with its existing business plan and funding. The major challenge for both organisations is the engagement model, which continues to be developed.