Spring Fibre Replaces CEO as UK Full Fibre Rollout Progresses

Alternative network operator Spring Fibre, which only a few months ago began to deploy a new 10Gbps capable wholesale Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) broadband network for UK ISPs – starting in Lincolnshire (England), has announced that Rosalind Singleton has been replaced as CEO by ex-Virgin Media man Gareth Greppellini.

Just to recap. Spring Fibre, which was initially backed by Kingsley Capital Partners and telecoms specialist Graphite Strategy, is known to have secured an investment of “up to” £155m from R&M’s (River and Mercantile) infrastructure business to support their aim of covering 1 million premises in England (here).

The operator’s early phase of development was largely overseen by former CEO Rosalind Singleton, who is also a former MD of UK Broadband Ltd (Three UK) and an active chair of the UK5G Advisory Board. But times change and the company has today announced Gareth Greppellini as its new CEO, while thanking Rosalind for helping to get the ball rolling.

Gareth is perhaps best known for being a long-time veteran of Virgin Media (VMO2), where he held various Director positions until last year. He’s also held leadership roles at Egg and is the founder of UKBushcraft, among various other things.

Stuart Sutton, Non-Executive Chair, said:

“We’re thrilled to welcome Gareth to the Spring Fibre family. His proven leadership and strategic vision make him the ideal person to guide Spring Fibre forward as we continue to our mission to bring ultrafast broadband to the parts of the country that need it most.”

Gareth’s appointment is said to mark the start of SF’s next phase of growth and a renewed focus on sustainability for the company, although it remains unclear which ISPs will sell services over their network and when that will start to go live. Lest we forget that Spring Fibre has launched into a market that is already under some strain due to rising build costs and an excess of infrastructure competition.