Hyperoptic in Midlands rollout with Citizen

Hyperoptic, a leading full fibre broadband provider, is partnering with Citizen to roll out its hyperfast service across 5,000 of its properties in the Midlands. Citizen is a leading housing provider in the Midlands and one of the biggest housing associations in the UK. Its portfolio includes over 30,000 homes across urban tower blocks, as well as properties in rural villages and towns, predominantly across Birmingham, Coventry and Worcester.

Hyperoptic offers gigabit-capable ‘full’ fibre broadband, which enables average broadband speeds of up to 900Mbps. This is over 12x faster than the UK average. Currently only one in four homes in Britain have access to a gigabit broadband service. The government is aiming for 85 per cent of homes to have access to a gigabit broadband connection by 2025.

Hyperoptic has been steadily increasing its UK footprint for the last ten years, through agreements with leading housing developers and registered housing providers. It installs its services into new and existing properties and has agreements with over 250 housing developers and 50 councils to connect their housing stock to its full fibre network. Working in partnership with registered housing providers, it has also delivered 400 complimentary connections and appointed a number of digital champions, who work in their communities to train neighbours on basic Internet skills.

Rollout will begin in the near future. Hyperoptic will also be connecting a number of community hubs, to give local residents access to free connectivity, which they can use for recreation, or to support education and enterprise.

Liam McAvoy, Senior Director of Business Development, Hyperoptic: “Citizen have a clear social purpose, which is to provide homes that are a foundation for life. We’re pleased to support this ambition. As well as digitally future-proofing properties, full fibre connectivity enables a host of social benefits across online financial savings and individual wellbeing.

“Over the last ten years, we’ve built an industry-leading proposition for registered housing providers, which is why we‘ve become the go-to partner of choice. We look forward to the rollout and delivering a service that is so-needed in these difficult times.”

Liz Bloomfield, Portfolio Manager at Citizen, adds: “We’re really excited that our full fibre broadband rollout with Hyperoptic is starting soon. We think it’s really important that our homes have access to the best broadband and I’m really pleased we’re already working towards our homes having gigabit broadband before the government’s target of 2025.

“We’re also really pleased to be working with Hyperoptic to ensure some of our most vulnerable customers in our supported housing get free access to the broadband to support their education, to help with job opportunities and to support recreation activities.

“Here at Citizen we believe passionately in our social purpose. We want to provide more than just a home; we want to provide a foundation for life.”