Hyperoptic guide
Is Hyperoptic down? Live outage tracker
Hyperoptic is a full-fibre network that built its own cables straight into apartment blocks and large buildings, rather than renting Openreach. That focus on multi-dwelling units gives residents genuinely fast, symmetric speeds, but it also shapes outages: because a whole block shares the in-building fibre and the equipment that feeds it, a single fault can take a lot of flats offline at once. When Hyperoptic goes down it is usually one of two things: a fault in your building's fibre or equipment, or an issue on Hyperoptic's wider network.
Hyperoptic problems tend to be one of two kinds.
The first is a building-level fault, on the fibre and equipment serving your block. Because Hyperoptic wires whole buildings, a problem in the basement equipment or the riser can knock out every flat on it at once, which is why neighbours are your fastest check: if the whole building is down, it is Hyperoptic's, not yours, and an engineer visit to the building usually fixes it.
The second is a wider network or core incident, which spreads across multiple buildings or a city at once. There is no single famous nationwide Hyperoptic outage on record, in keeping with a network concentrated in towers and estates rather than spread across the country, but a core fault behaves the same way: nothing to fix at your end, cleared centrally.
On speed, Hyperoptic is not a signatory to Ofcom's Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds, so the automatic speed-based exit that signed-up providers offer does not apply. It runs its own minimum guaranteed speed on every package instead, so check the terms of that guarantee for your get-out if speeds fall short.
On price, the long-standing Hyperoptic promise of no mid-contract rises has changed for newer customers: contracts taken or renewed from 2026 carry a fixed pounds-and-pence annual increase, while customers from before mid-2025 keep the old no-rise deal. Check which applies to you.
For a total loss of service, Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme pays £10.34 a day beyond two full working days for providers that have signed up, so it is worth confirming whether Hyperoptic is in the scheme.
Hyperoptic runs its own support and engineers, and because its network is in-building, a fault often needs an engineer to the block rather than to your flat. To move a case along, run a speed test on a wired ethernet connection and report a result below your guaranteed speed, or flag packet loss on a wired connection, both of which point at the line rather than wifi. If the building's fibre or equipment is the issue, that is Hyperoptic's to fix.
If a fault goes unresolved, you can escalate to alternative dispute resolution. Hyperoptic is a member of the Communications Ombudsman, the independent scheme, and you can take a complaint there after eight weeks without resolution, or sooner if Hyperoptic issues you a deadlock letter.
Hyperoptic only reaches wired buildings, so if you are leaving, what you can switch to depends on your block and street. Many buildings also have Openreach full fibre, and some have Virgin's cable or another altnet, though in a managed building your options can be narrower than on a normal street. The deal finder above shows which networks actually reach your address rather than the "up to" figures in the adverts.