Oxfordshire: Gigaclear CEO receives OBE for broadband services

Matthew Hare, founder and chief executive of Gigaclear, the leading rural full fibre broadband provider, has received an OBE in this year’s Birthday Honours List, for his services to broadband provision in the UK.

Hare is renowned for accelerating the construction and adoption of full-fibre broadband in hundreds of rural communities in Britain. He has acted as a pioneer, believing in a full fibre future in a country with very little full fibre infrastructure. Eight years on, Gigaclear is delivering world class speeds of 1,000Mbps (1Gbps) to over 65,000 rural homes and businesses.

He commented: “I am delighted to be recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. This acknowledgement is not only testament to the work Gigaclear has accomplished, but a clear validation of our vision of a full fibre future for Britain’s rural population.

"We are constantly innovating and searching for new ways to accelerate the deployment of our ultrafast networks. We view every hurdle as motivation to reach and connect more digitally isolated communities. I’d like to thank the rural communities who have fought for better broadband, local and central Government for their support, and, of course, the Gigaclear team, of whom I am very proud, for sharing my vision. I am delighted to receive an award for something that I am truly passionate about.”

Hare founded Gigaclear after experiencing first-hand the struggle rural homes and businesses faced in accessing fast, reliable internet connections. The antique copper-based networks prevalent across the country and the lack of relevant investment by other network providers meant that rural communities enjoyment and employment of the internet severely lagged their urban counterparts. Hare saw the opportunity to use state-of-the-art full fibre network technologies, where distance has no impact on performance, to deliver broadband to rural homes and businesses.

The company is in a phase of substantial growth having just connected it’s 16,000th customer and plans to serve more than 300,000 properties by 2021. It won Best Rural Broadband Provider at the Internet Service Providers Association Awards in 2017.