Hyperoptic has a plan to cover an additional million homes

In a surprise move Hyperoptic has announced it is working towards selling Openreach full fibre in addition to operating its own fibre to the premises network.

The new strategic plan is is expected to see Hyperoptic launching its Openreach GEA FTTP service in Q1 2026 with a footprint starting at 1 million homes and this may expand over time.

We have built a solid reputation of delivering best-in-class customer experience to our current footprint of 64 towns and cities, placing us in a unique position within the market. To support our growth ambition, and to bring the Hyperoptic experience to more consumers, we have taken a strategic decision to make our services available via the Openreach platform from next year.

This expansion is good news for both existing consumers and new customers looking to improve their service. Our research highlights that most customers who leave us do so because they’re moving home. We understand home movers would prefer to take their Hyperoptic service with them so today’s announcement will make that possible, and our customers can continue to enjoy Hyperoptic for many years

CEO and co-founder, Dana Tobak CBE

As part of the announcement for this strategic move Hyperoptic has also highlighted that as of June 2025 its own premises passed figure is 1.9 million homes passed and they hit the 400,000 customers milestone this month too.

Whether this embracing of the Openreach full fibre network will have an impact of the pace of the Hyperoptic rollout will only be revealed in time. It is possible if they uncover pockets of demand previously overlooked that they may roll out their own service to give more end to end control of things.

One million homes as an initial target will look small compared to the 18.5 million Openreach full fibre footprint, but if starting small allows Hyperoptic to scale its reach without impacting customer service levels it could prove a wise move.

We did ask Hyperoptic about their on-net 1.9 million premises passed figure, as our tracking is significantly behind this figure at 1.3 million and while the footprint is growing there is no indication of us missing such a large number of premises. The response we got is that 1.9 million reflects premises where service is available, and not all properties are able to order straight away, with things like wayleaves and commercial deals sometimes getting in the way. The thinkbroadband 1.3 million premises figure is based on a standard Ready for Service criteria and we look forward to seeing the gap close as more premises see Hyperoptic start to arrive in their building or street.