Internet connectivity is the lifeblood of modern businesses, powering operations, communication, and growth. But not all “fibre” connections are created equal.

All connections use fibre at some level, but performance, reliability, and guarantees vary depending on the underlying network. Choosing the right type of connection now can save downtime, frustration, and cost in the future.

In this guide, we'll explore key factors when selecting the ideal business internet provider to keep you connected and thriving.

Understand the connection types

Here’s a quick comparison of the three main fibre-based connections available to businesses:

FTTC and FTTP may work for small teams or low-risk work, but DIA is the only connection built for business-critical reliability, speed, and consistent performance.

Ask yourself these questions

Before comparing providers, clarify your internal needs:

• How critical is uptime for your business operations?
• Which teams rely heavily on cloud apps, video conferencing, or large file transfers?
• How much bandwidth do we need now, and how much will we need in 2–5 years?
• Are upload speeds as important as download speeds for our workflows?
• Would temporary downtime cause financial or reputational damage?

This self-assessment helps you match connection types to your business requirements.

Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) like OpenAI's ChatGPT are revolutionising industries across the board. From writing emails to creating educational content, they're powerful tools built to understand and generate human-like text. But the same tech that makes GPTs useful also makes them risky, particularly for cybersecurity.

In February 2024, Microsoft and OpenAI spotted several state-backed hacking groups from Russia, North Korea, Iran, and China using GPTs to improve their exploitation tactics. The Strontium group, linked to Russian military intelligence, has been found using large language models (LLM’s) to understand satellite communication protocols, radar imaging technologies, and other sensitive miliatry information.

But GPTs can also be misused in everyday cybercrime and by employees or contractors who have access to sensitive data.

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How GPTs can be weaponised in everyday cybercrime

• Phishing: GPTs can generate convincing phishing emails that mimic real writing styles, making it more difficult to spot and harder for filters to block.
• Social engineering: these models can be used in live chats, like customer support, to trick people into giving up sensitive information. Connected to text-to-speech tools, they could also be used in voice scams.
• Malware code generation: even with filters in place, attackers can trick GPTs into writing malicious code.
• Data leakage: when employees input sensitive company information into these models, that data gets stored and could be leaked back to others.
• Misinformation: GPT’s can 'hallucinate', which means they present false information portrayed as fact. When spread, this can lead to real-world consequences such as political confusion or interference during a crisis.

_{How DPG overcame last-minute delays to get online in 3 weeks}

Anyone who’s managed an office move understands how much coordination it takes: logistics, tight deadlines, suppliers to manage, all while keeping the day job going. But when your internet provider, a well-known legacy player, lets you down just weeks before your move, things can get really stressful.

Three months to get connected – but the provider stalled

DPG is a specialist social justice law firm. With a team of 80, they rely on secure, fast connectivity to manage sensitive legal work.

They gave their internet provider three months’ notice to install a leased line at their new office. But as the move-in date approached, the provider asked for a further 60-day extension.

With just six weeks left to go before staff were due to move in, DPG had no choice but to cancel their contract and find a new supplier.

The problem with ‘business broadband’

Most people search for ‘business broadband’ when they’re looking for internet for their office. Fair enough, it’s the term that’s been marketed to death. But here’s the thing: business broadband isn’t the only option, and most of the time, it won't meet the needs of a modern business. If you need a connection that actually keeps up, a leased line is the answer; reliable, secure, and built for multiple users.

In this blog we explain the differences between the two connections.

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Broadband vs leased line explained

• Broadband: A standard, shared internet connection typically designed for home use, but sometimes used in small offices. Speeds can vary, especially during busy times, and upload speeds are often much lower than downloads – which can limit performance for modern business applications.
• Leased line: A private, dedicated connection between your premises and your provider. Symmetrical speeds, guaranteed performance, and no sharing with neighbours - specifically designed to meet the demands of modern business connectivity.

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Business broadband: a closer look

Most of the time, business broadband is the same product that an ISP (Internet Service Provider) sells to their residential customers, but more expensive and probably bundled with a low-level cyber security product.

It has a dedicated web page, with stock photos of people doing business. And it comes with some comforting words to tell you that they know how hard business is. Excruciating.

Your traffic isn’t prioritised. Your connection isn’t dedicated. And if you have an ‘account manager’, they’re probably responsible for literally thousands of customers like you.

If you pay more, you might get a commitment to investigate faults within a given time – usually within a day.

When you’re looking for business broadband, bear these things in mind. Look at the details to see if you’re simply being sold a standard home broadband package disguised as a business solution.

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What does great internet connectivity for business look like?

It’s very easy to call something business broadband. But it’s a very different thing to provide internet connectivity that’s genuinely fast and reliable enough for London business in 2025.

One of the fundamental features of an internet product for business is a dedicated connection.

‘Broadband’ or ‘FTTP’ (that’s Fibre to the Premise) means that the service you’re paying for is shared between you and typically 30 of your neighbours – whether they’re houses or other businesses.

So when you have a broadband or FTTP connection, don’t expect to get the Gbps speeds you’ve paid for at busy times (which is most of the working day). It’s cheap, and it connects. But it’s not a product that you can rely on to keep your business running.

At the busiest times, you'll have to hope that it’ll give you what you need. That might mean putting up with a poor-quality video call, a painful wait downloading a PowerPoint, or an eternity for every employee to log in to Teams at 9am.

Internet connectivity that you and your business can rely on is going to be dedicated to you, and that means taking a leased line (also known as DIA, or direct internet access).

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What are the benefits of a leased line?

A dedicated connection means guaranteed bandwidth

With a leased line, you get every bit you pay for, unlike a shared ‘broadband’ connection, where you can pay for 1Gbps but it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever see that speed.

A connection you can rely on

Always the speed you’ve paid for and infrastructure that’s backed up by an SLA (Service Level Agreement) – and automatic compensation if you choose a really good ISP. And the ability to order a back-up line, to increase the resilience of your service.

Lower latency

The more direct architecture and quicker route to a data centre (where your connection hits the internet) means a leased line will almost always offer lower latency than a broadband connection.

Upload that matches download

Most broadband, FTTP and cable services advertise the download speed but keep quiet on upload – that’s because upload is significantly slower in these services, often as little as a tenth of the speed. Leased lines have ‘symmetrical’ download and upload.

Enhanced security

Security can never be taken for granted, so check on the Infosec and compliance qualifications of your provider – typically, those selling residential-grade services won’t invest in this area, but serious business providers recognise the huge benefit to their customers.

• Broadband: speeds vary, especially during peak times when many users share the line
• Leased line: your own private connection with speeds that never slow down
• Why it matters: faster speeds mean quicker file sharing, uninterrupted calls, and no buffering

How the two really compare

Leased line vs broadband, 13 key differences

1. Shared vs dedicated connection

• Broadband: line is shared with up to 30 users, meaning speeds vary
• Leased line: your own private, dedicated connection with speeds that never slow down
• Why it matters: a dedicated connection keeps critical work flowing without interruptions or slowdowns

2. Upload vs download speeds

• Broadband: downloads are fine, uploads are often much slower
• Leased line: symmetrical (equal upload and download speeds)
• Why it matters: symmetrical speeds mean quicker file sharing, uninterrupted video calls, and seamless cloud uploads/downloads

3. Reliability

• Broadband: line shared with others, so performance can be unreliable when usage is high
• Leased line: dedicated, uncontested connection that stays reliable
• Why it matters: a stable connection doesn't disturb business operations and maximises productivity

4. Service level agreements (SLAs)

• Broadband: uptime and fix times are not guaranteed; outages take longer to resolve
• Leased line: 99.9%+ uptime with fixed repair times, usually within a few hours
• Why it matters: no guaranteed repair times mean more downtime and distruption

5. Proactive monitoring

• Broadband: reactive, your provider might prioritise other issues over yours
• Leased line: 24/7 monitoring; problems often fixed before you notice
• Why it matters: proactive fixes mean fewer outages and smoother operations

6. Dedicated point of contact

• Broadband: no dedicated contact; expect long calls, chat bots, and slow complaint handling
• Leased line: you get a dedicated account manager you can reach directly, usually within minutes
• Why it matters: dedicated point of contact means faster responses, fixes, and no endless chasing

7. Latency (the time it takes for data to travel between you and the person or system you’re connecting to)

• Broadband: higher latency and prone to more network congestion
• Leased line: minimal delay for smooth, instant calls, file uploads etc.
• Why it matters: low latency prevents frozen video or slow cloud uploads

8. Traffic prioritisation

• Broadband: provider decides what gets priority
• Leased line: you control which activities come first (e.g., video calls, file transfers
• Why it matters: without control, important tasks can slow during busy periods

9. Truly unlimited

• Broadband: “unlimited” may come with data caps or throttling (slowing speeds after a threshold
• Leased line: No data limits or throttling; full speed at all times
• Why it matters: no data limits mean no surprise slowdowns mid-project

‍10. Installation time

• Broadband: a couple of weeks
• Leased line: depends on provider; Vorboss offers “Rapid Install” in as little as 48 hours
• Why it matters: slow setup can delay your business getting online

11. No phone line required

• Broadband: often tied to phone rental
• Leased line: internet-only, perfect for internet-based phone systems (VoIP)
• Why it matters: save money by ditching old-style phone lines while still making calls‍

12. Cost

• Broadband: cheaper monthly fees
• Leased line: higher cost, but delivers fast, reliable, uninterrupted service
• Why it matters: paying more is worth it if slow internet or downtime is slowing your team, delaying projects, or costing your business money

13. Scalability

• Broadband: limited options for upgrading bandwidth
• Leased line: easily upgraded as your business grows
• Why it matters: leased line supports business growth without needing a completely new internet connection

Feature comparison at a glance

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The difference that matters: reliability

That’s the key difference between the experience of these two technologies: how much you can rely on your connection, and how that impacts your business. We see it in every customer interaction as they move from broadband to direct internet – the shackles are off.

While business broadband infrastructure is shared with the businesses and houses around you, leased line (or direct internet) infrastructure is dedicated to you – it isn’t shared with anyone.

It’s your connection, and every bit of the bandwidth you’re paying for is yours. It’s guaranteed. Always giving you the internet speed and capacity you need, no matter how busy things get.

The whole Manchester office coming down for a team day? No problem. Sending a broadcast-quality video file to a client on a deadline? Easy. Worrying about signing up to a new cloud-based software for project management? Don’t. Putting the CEO on a video call that has to be perfect? Do it.  

A 10Gbps leased line ensures you always have the speed you need. It’s a service you and your business can rely on.

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Installation time

• Broadband: a couple of weeks
 
• Leased Line: depends on provider; Vorboss offers “Rapid Install” in as little as 48 hours
 
• Why it matters: slow setup can delay your business getting online
  

11. No phone line required

• Broadband: often tied to phone rental
 
• Leased line: internet-only, perfect for internet-based phone systems (VoIP)
 
• Why it matters: save money by ditching old-style phone lines while still making calls
  

12. Cost

• Broadband: cheaper monthly fees
 
• Leased line: higher cost, but delivers fast, reliable, uninterrupted service
 
• Why it matters: paying more is worth it if slow internet or downtime is slowing your team, delaying projects, or costing your business money
  

13. Scalability

• Broadband: limited options for upgrading bandwidth
 
• Leased line: easily upgraded as your business grows
 
• Why it matters: leased line supports business growth without needing a completely new internet connection
 

Feature comparison at a glance

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The difference that matters: reliability

That’s the key difference between the experience of these two technologies: how much you can rely on your connection, and how that impacts your business. We see it in every customer interaction as they move from broadband to direct internet – the shackles are off.

While business broadband infrastructure is shared with the businesses and houses around you, leased line (or direct internet) infrastructure is dedicated to you – it isn’t shared with anyone.

It’s your connection, and every bit of the bandwidth you’re paying for is yours. It’s guaranteed. Always giving you the internet speed and capacity you need, no matter how busy things get.

The whole Manchester office coming down for a team day? No problem. Sending a broadcast-quality video file to a client on a deadline? Easy. Worrying about signing up to a new cloud-based software for project management? Don’t. Putting the CEO on a video call that has to be perfect? Do it.  

A 10Gbps leased line ensures you always have the speed you need. It’s a service you and your business can rely on.

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Breach breakdown

In April 2025, Marks & Spencer (M&S) was hit by a serious cyberattack, and not by amateurs. The group behind it, known as Scattered Spider (also known as UNC3944 or Octo Tempest) has a track record. They’ve already taken on major U.S. giants like Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts.

Our team has done a deep dive into what happened and, more importantly, how businesses like yours can stay protected.

‍London, 17 July 2025

Vorboss, London’s leading fibre network built exclusively for business, today announced the expansion of its managed services portfolio, reinforcing its position as the trusted single provider for the city’s enterprise connectivity needs. This strategic move reflects the growing demand for comprehensive, resilient services from a single, expert partner – particularly in light of the increasing complexity of cybersecurity threats and IT infrastructure.

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• ‍London businesses can now consolidate connectivity, managed services, and cybersecurity, backed by the fastest fibre network built exclusively for businesses
• Completed acquisitions of 40fi (cybersecurity) and Optimity (managed services), and strategic investment in Layer8 (network management for commercial real estate)
• 80+ new specialists join Vorboss, expanding total workforce to nearly 400

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As part of this strategy, Vorboss has closed three acquisitions designed to broaden its capabilities beyond its core strength in managed network infrastructure. Among these are 40fi, a respected cybersecurity business, and Optimity, a leading provider of managed IT services. Together, these acquisitions bring an additional 80 experienced professionals into the Vorboss team, significantly enhancing the company’s ability to deliver end-to-end solutions for London’s most demanding businesses. Vorboss is excited to welcome the hundreds of customers that Optimity and 40fi serve across the UK today, and look forward to continuing the high levels of customer service and technical expertise currently provided.

This expansion addresses a clear and urgent need from Vorboss customers: the ability to consolidate connectivity, IT, and security under one accountable provider. By integrating cybersecurity expertise and managed IT services capabilities into its offering, Vorboss is now uniquely positioned to provide a comprehensive suite of services – spanning secure network infrastructure, endpoint management, threat mitigation, and strategic IT and cybersecurity consultancy.  

Tim Creswick, CEO of Vorboss:

“Vorboss has a long history in managed services, but for the last 6 years, our focus has been on delivering the best enterprise fibre network London has ever seen. That has been a huge project, commanding millions of hours of labour from our team, and we are now connecting thousands of business customers to that network – all at 10Gbps and above. I’m excited that we’re now able to return to some of our managed services roots, with the timely addition of cybersecurity services. These are things that our customers and partners ask us about all the time. As operators of extensive, high-capacity infrastructure, we have a huge amount of real expertise in-house already, so customers know that they’re getting advice from real practitioners, not just consultants.

The addition of the Optimity and 40fi teams gives us some immediate scale to address those customer needs, with the same vertically integrated, high quality approach that they’ve come to love from us”.  

In addition, Vorboss has also invested in Layer8, a first-of-a-kind software platform enabling building operators to automate, manage, and monetise their networks. Designed for commercial real estate environments, Layer8 gives building managers, managed service providers (MSPs), and non-technical users simple, secure control over on-site network infrastructure.‍