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Webinar Recap: The Impact of COVID-19 on a Full Fibre Network

Webinar Recap: The Impact of COVID-19 on a Full Fibre Network

By Nicky Dorman, Head of Build-to-Rent, Hyperoptic

It was a real pleasure to host our webinar on the impact of COVID-19 on a full fibre network. This was a fascinating discussion, spanning the traffic trends we’ve noticed during lockdown, how technology use has changed due to COVID-19, and the wider effects across real estate.

We kicked off by hearing from Tony Mitchell, Network Operations Director here at Hyperoptic. Tony has been in the telecoms game for several years and it was inspiring to hear him speak about the Hyperoptic network and its ability to deal with the issues presented by COVID-19.

Tony was thrilled to tell us about the changing trends in network usage and traffic during COVID-19. His findings showed that, as expected, peaks have grown due to increased working from home and school closures, and patterns of traffic have shifted into the working day – insight that highlight the enormous changes we’ve all had to make to our daily lives.

Tony made it clear that Hyperoptic have been able to manage these peaks successfully. He explained that one of Hyperoptic’s capabilities is the full fibre access network, and that our 10 years’ experience in full fibre gives us a core competence. Between this experience and the future-proof technology, Hyperoptic delivers strong performance in even the most challenging of circumstances – including COVID-19!

The discussion then moved to the future of connectivity. We were really eager to know if COVID-19 has changed things: whether demand for connectivity will be greater going forward, and how real estate may have to respond if that’s the case.

We were absolutely delighted that Debra Yudolph of SAY Property Consultants could join us to answer this question. We recently produced a research paper in partnership with SAY and know that Debra has the best insights into how buildings are run now – and may be in the future! It was great to see Debra speak with real enthusiasm about that research, giving us eye-opening insight into the views that leaders across real estate have on technology.

One point Debra raised was that, even though this research was published in early 2020, there was already total agreement on the importance of connectivity within the sector. Internet is clearly considered the key innovation of the last 100 years and is firmly recognised as the fourth utility. What was less apparent was whether the sector was prepared to invest in infrastructure to provide high-speed connectivity and other technologies that could change how buildings operate.

We all agreed with Debra’s view that it would be fascinating to re-run these questions now that the world has changed, and that the pace of change is likely to quicken due to COVID-19. Debra’s expert opinion was that buildings will be designed differently in the future. Implementing new technologies will be critical to both residential and commercial occupation – fascinating stuff!

Clearly, in a world where businesses have had to embrace new technology just to function, the real estate sector needs to stop considering high speed broadband an extra and see it as the new normal.

To wrap things up, Debra was joined by Henry Pethybridge at WiredScore to discuss whether connectivity is even more critical now so many of us have moved to working from home. WiredScore is doing really exciting work as a certification firm, rating how well- connected buildings are to the internet, so we were keen to get Henry’s unique take on post-COVID connectivity.

Henry made it clear straight away that connectivity is already a huge part of our lives. We loved the comparison he used: you would never expect to move into a building without running water or heating – so why would you move into a house without quality internet?

Henry believes that as the Build-to-Rent and serviced office world has opened up, developers and landlords are realising that their reputation is at stake when it comes to internet quality. And since COVID-19, conversations have moved fast. Henry told us that one landlord he had spoken to had seen as much digital transformation during COVID-19 as they would expect to see in a year!

Many of us were wondering if residential providers may soon be expected to match what’s seen in commercial buildings. Henry told us was that this transition was already happening -– that Build-to-Rent companies were building co-working spaces as flexible working becomes more attractive to residents. That’s another transition we can expect to speed up going forward!

Even though it feels like everyone’s home has now become their office, Henry said his clients have seen no major connectivity issues. He believed this was due partly to providers like Hyperoptic, who’ve been able to deal with big increases in the amounts of data passing through residential homes. It was great to hear we’ve equipped Hyperoptic users to stay connected even through such massive changes.

That brought Henry to his summary point: many developers are asking “if working from home can happen so quickly, what might be next?” We considered how technologies such as 5G and IoT could change the way buildings are managed. What was clear was that many exciting conversations are happening now that the new normal is here.

We were thrilled to have hosted one of those conversations, one that highlighted the real importance of full fibre broadband and future-proofing infrastructure. You can listen to the webinar in full here.