Rural Full Fibre Broadband ISP Gigaclear Appoint Two New UK Directors
Abingdon-based alternative broadband ISP Gigaclear, which has deployed their full fibre (FTTP) network to cover 600,000 premises (mostly in remote rural parts of England), has today announced that they’ve appointed two new Directors to their board – Stephanie Liston, Chair of the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority (JCRA), and Catherine Colloms, former Openreach executive.
The provider, which is home to a customer base of 150,000 (i.e. 25% take-up, with a goal of reaching 29% by the end of this financial year), said that the appointments of “two telecoms industry big hitters is testament to the company’s recent strong performance“. But the company has also suffered some recent job cuts (here and here), fuelled by a “re-focus on ultra-rural areas“ (e.g. Project Gigabit contracts), as well as pressures from high interest rates, rising build costs and the highly competitive environment etc.
Stephanie Liston joins Gigaclear having also chaired the Digital Connectivity Forum since March 2021 with a background as a senior lawyer with international experience in telecoms law and regulation. Meanwhile, Catherine Colloms was MD of Corporate Affairs & Brand at Openreach, where she helped lead the biggest transformation of the UK’s digital network in a century. Catherine currently holds a Non-Executive Director role on the Industrial Development Advisory Board within the UK’s Department for Business and Trade.
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Nathan Rundle, Gigaclear CEO, said:
“I am excited about these new directors who undoubtedly bring vast and varied experience to Gigaclear. We have already achieved significant growth and Stephanie and Catherine will help us with our mission to remain the UK’s leading rural altnet.”
Stephanie and Catherine will assume their roles as Non-executive Directors at Gigaclear from 1st August 2025.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Forgive my cynicism, but employing the former, MD of Corporate Affairs & Brand at Openslouch, seems like a terrible idea. In this area Rural Gloucestershire, Openslouch delivery of FTTP has been, painfully slow. Despite Billions in public funding provided to them for FTTP. There must be other suitably qualified people, from another Alt Net that Gigaclear could have chosen. Importing Openslouchs, terrible culture into Gigaclear sounds like a disastrous idea. We need faster rollouts of FTTP, before we are all in grave, preferably…
Your bias has tarnished your judgment. Fortunately, the backers of Gigaclear are not so encumbered. I suggest you take a closer look at the backgrounds of the two new directors.
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2025/07/openreach-name-21-new-uk-locations-for-fttp-broadband-build-plan.html says it’s c. 85,000 per week. That doesn’t seem that ‘painfully slow’ rate. For interest sake, what would you expect the rate to be?
What work do you believe Openreach has done and received public money for? Remember that anyone doing BDUK or similar work only gets paid when the work has been finished.
Just a thought, Believe me I keep a very close watch on New Openslouch FTTP installations in this Rural area of South Gloucestershire. Saying they are Painfully slow is a massive understatement. They have been completely eclipsed, by Gigaclear FTTP who have blanketed the area, with a New FTTP network. Openslouch have been making big FTTP promises for decades here, but it seems to be mostly hot air…
Wouldn’t this be because Gigaclear are getting subsidies to do it in Gloucestershire? https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2024/09/uk-isp-gigaclear-complete-fastershire-fttp-broadband-rollout.html
It isn’t surprising that OR are currently focusing their resources on areas where they have the government contract or where they are confident that they can make a commercial return. Other areas will follow eventually.
Either way, the stats don’t lie – Openreach have always been the largest FTTP operator and their build rate is seriously impressive. Even if it hasn’t got to you yet.
The elevation of Catherine Colloms to a Directorship is an interesting development. Her current CV is worth reading.
I guess when you have your own ISP Charlie, you can choose who you want to employ.
125us, Openslouch have received several massive tranches of BDUK funding for this area. All they achieved, was Installing FTTP in the centre of the towns & villages. And leaving all the Rural properties surrounding those areas, languishing on Copper. When Openreach engineers were questioned about when the rest of the network in these areas was due to be upgraded, they said, ‘probably never’.:-O…
They can’t have done, because the funds are only paid to providers when the work is completed. If they’ve received funding, the work they were paid to do has been done.