Original article ISPreview UK:Read More
Matthew Hare, the Executive Chairman of alternative UK broadband operator FullFibre Limited, has announced that he is “stepping back” from the role after only being appointed to the post in January 2025 following the merger with fellow altnet Zzoomm (here), where he was previously the CEO.
The combined Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network currently reaches 600,000 premises (RFS) and 80,000 customers (up from 70k in March 2025) across England – serving parts of 100 market towns, which makes it one of the UK’s largest altnets. This reflects both their open access wholesale network (FullFibre) and their in-house retail ISPs (BeFibre and Zzoomm), although the BeFibre brand might soon be retired (here).
The newly merged company has since suffered from some post-deal redundancies (here), although the big development this week is that the former CEO of Zzoomm and current Executive Chairman of the merged network, Matthew Hare (pictured – left), has informed shareholders that he is stepping back from the role, despite only doing the job for a few months.
James Warner, CEO of FullFibre (Group), said:
“Matthew Hare has made the decision to step down from his role of Executive Chairman from the FullFibre/Zzoomm group. His development of the highly respected Zzoomm business, and most recently in his role supporting the newly enlarged FullFibre group, have played a critical role in building competitive UK telecoms infrastructure providing high quality services to customers across the country. The board thank him for his efforts and wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”
According to ISPreview’s sources, Matthew is also understood to have indicated that the network operator is in sight of positive EBITDA this year and positive cash flow next year. The group is said to be considering a range of additional merger opportunities that could potentially help to grow their current level of profitability and cash generation even faster.
Matthew doesn’t say precisely why he’s chosen to step back from the new role and all day-to-day operations, but he does plan to remain a minority shareholder in the business and indicated strong confidence in the company’s CEO, James Warner (pictured – right). Matthew added that he himself doesn’t have any immediate plans and is currently contemplating his future.