George Soros pumps £50m into broadband start-up Hyperoptic

Telegraph 23 May 2013
George Soros has put £50m into Hyperoptic, a start-up aiming to leapfrog Britain’s telecoms giants by building a fibre optic network that offers consumers internet access at least 10 times faster than currently available.
The veteran investor’s private equity fund Quantum Strategic Partners has backed the infrastructure effort.
Hyperoptic is extending its fibre optic cables all the way into homes, allowing it to provide internet access at one gigabit per second, more than 10 times faster than the fastest packages on offer from BT and Virgin Media. BT’s ongoing superfast broadband upgrade takes fibre optic cables only as far as street-side cabinets, with the final hop into homes along traditional copper phone lines that slow internet access.
The cash injection from Mr Soros increases the capital available to Hyperoptic more than six-fold. It will use the money to extend its network outside London, where it has so far covered 20,000 homes in large blocks of more than 200 flats where economies of scale justify investment.
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