How 1Gbps business internet is limiting your potential
May 21, 2025
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4
min read
Highlights
1Gbps business internet, which is standard in London, hinders business productivity with slow data speeds and connectivity issues. Low bandwidth slows down daily tasks, affecting employee efficiency especially in the era of hybrid work that requires collaboration and remote access. Vorboss provides 10Gbps as standard, providing businesses in London with limitless connectivity and addressing future data requirements.
When was the last time you noticed your business internet's ability?
Whether it’s waiting to transfer a large file or trying to collaborate on a cloud-based app, your business internet directly impacts performance across your working day.
Yet, most companies are so used to the drawbacks of 1Gbps business internet that these time lags and glitchy delays have become normalised despite their drain on operations.
Simply put, 1Gbps internet limits the potential of ambitious businesses. It lacks the capability required in 2023, let alone in the near future, with peak internet traffic increasing 35% year-on-year and the imminent growth of AI tools.
But don't worry, there is another way (spoiler alert: it's 10Gbps business internet).
1Gbps = accepting limitations
1Gbps is the standard business internet in London, which is like buying an old sedan to win an F1 race. While it satisfies the most basic functions, it’s unsuited to modern demands, slow to accelerate, highly susceptible to breakdowns, and increasingly outdated with every passing month.
In short, it’s limiting your ability to drive faster and compete. Here’s why.
Productivity
Software, data, people, and communication power modern businesses. Therefore, employee productivity is inextricably linked to internet capacity.
From Slack and Salesforce to Zoom and Zendesk, the average business uses 130 software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools for its communications, project management, accounting, and HR functionality.
Not to mention video streaming, file transfers, data analysis, and multimedia downloads. No matter your business’ core proposition, your operational efficiency relies on your business internet.
1Gbps’ low data bandwidth can slow down daily tasks, hamper productivity, and frustrate employees. With 10Gbps business internet, teams comple tasks 10X faster, and productivity (and employee morale) soar.
The business impact of high bandwidth internet is immediate and tangible. So why limit your bandwidth in the first place?
Connectivity
Hybrid working is here to stay.
In April 2023, Central London workers came into the office on average 2.3 days per week, with most employers supporting remote work in some capacity. And a good commercial internet connection is essential for private VPNs that allow remote users to access private company data.
Reliable online connectivity enables remote employees to access resources easily, participate in virtual collaboration effectively, and work productively. On the flip side, frequent connection drops interrupt important tasks and adversely impact customer service and employee morale.
1Gbps business internet does not provide enough reliability to banish connectivity concerns. Wouldn’t it be great if you could ensure uninterrupted connectivity for all your employees?
Scalability
Think about how many cloud-based apps your business currently uses. Now, think about how much you will use in the near future when more game-changing AI products hit the market and quantum computing becomes the norm.
With data requirements doubling every two years, you need internet that can flexibly scale to your evolving data processing needs and easily handle more users as your business expands.
1Gbps business internet might satisfy your basic requirements today, but you need to plan for the impending surge of new data requirements to remain competitive. So why not get ahead of your rivals now instead of playing catch-up down the line?
Customer experience
How do you work with your clients or customers?
If your company uses real-time collaboration tools like Miro whiteboards to brainstorm ideas or Zoom conferencing services to host interactive webinars or even basic video calls, then reliable connectivity is your lifeblood; these tools don’t work if there isn’t enough bandwidth.
But, limited connectivity also impedes customers' online interaction with your business, such as unresponsive customer service or slow-to-load digital products, leading to frustrated customers, negative brand reputation, and ultimately a loss of business.
1Gbps’ limited connectivity might work now, but if you take on more customers or need to fulfil more orders, you may find yourself stuck in first gear with no way to accelerate. Why run the risk?
10Gbps = going limitless
It’s unlikely you’d accept ‘standard’ with any other part of your business, so why accept ‘standard’ with your business internet?
As technology develops, costs fall and the playing field changes. Netflix’s affordable subscription streaming made us forget about TV scheduling. Mobile network providers' unlimited packages made us forget about the cost of phone calls.
Now, 10Gbps business internet is having an effect, helping us forget about connectivity and reliability issues while making your business more productive and scalable. Businesses all across London are waking up to this, and the ship is turning. At Vorboss, we provide 10Gbps as standard (rather than the limit), as that's a sensible, technical minimum in 2023.
And, as we own the network, maintain the cables, and directly provide the customer connection, we can easily scale your data requirements as you grow, future-proofing your long-term business growth.
Without the limitations of 1Gbps, you’ll never notice your business internet again.
Book a consultation to find out why businesses are switching to Vorboss.
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More articles
Business broadband vs leased line: the key differences?
Expert conclusion: The label ‘business broadband’ doesn’t really mean anything – the term covers a wide range of services, each with very different experiences. Get into the details, and save yourself a lot of frustration and disappointment.
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.
What is business broadband?
Most of the time, it’s just the same product as the 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.
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 knows as DIA, or direct internet access).
What is the difference between business broadband and business leased line or ‘dedicated’ internet (DIA)?
One word: 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.
What are the key features of business leased line and business broadband?
Leased line:
• Dedicated to one customer – a dedicated, private cable between your office and your provider's data centre
• Symmetrical – you get the same upload speed as download speed
• Highly reliable
Broadband:
• Shared circuit by up to 32 users
• Usually asymmetrical – upload typically much slower than download
• Prone to performance issues, particularly during the working day
The technology explained
We’ve covered the difference in experience, but what’s the technology difference?
A ‘leased line’ is a dedicated fibre connection between your office space and your provider’s spot in a data centre (often called a Point of Presence, or PoP). This is where your connection reaches the internet or cloud.
Your proximity to the provider’s data centre is important for latency – which is the speed at which things happen online. It’s not to be confused with upload and download speed, which is how long content takes to get to/from you. It’s more like how quickly the order you give is obeyed.
Two more important features of a leased line network are how many data centres your provider connects to, and how many diverse routes they have between you and those centres.
More than one data centre, and numerous routes equals resilience. And resilience is vital in business internet connections. If one route gets blocked, your data has alternative routes so there's no disruption.
Leased lines use fibre, but they’re not like residential broadband as the fibre line isn’t shared. You’ll often read about leased lines being called Ethernet, but the main terms to look out for are Leased line or Direct Internet Access (DIA).
A broadband connection is typically PON-based – that’s passive optical network, and relates to the way in which ‘splitters’ are used to connect multiple customers to the same fibre. It’s a revolutionary technology when it comes to delivering fibre to multiple homes, where super low cost is the main driver. But for business, it’s ‘best effort’, at best.
It’s cheap to deliver, and so it’s relatively cheap to buy. But it comes with the reality that you cannot rely on it. If the other homes or businesses on your fibre are using the network, then you’ll suffer.
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.
A feature comparison
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 40Fi DFND team has done a deep dive into what happened and, more importantly, how businesses like yours can stay protected.
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Join our free workshop with the City of London Police. Register now.
How they got in
Scattered Spider used smart, targeted phishing emails and impersonated IT staff to trick people into handing over their credentials. They even used a tactic called "MFA fatigue", which consisted of spamming employees with repeated login requests until one was mistakenly approved.
Threat intelligence researcher, Lontz reported on suspected Scattered Spider infrastructure (see figure 2), involving fake domains designed to mimic legitimate login pages of well-known websites. A spoofed company login page could have been created to get access to M&S employee login details.
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What happened after they got in
Initial access to M&S systems is believed to have been as early as February. Once in, the attackers used stolen administrative credentials to deploy legitimate remote administration tools (RATs). This gave them ongoing control over key systems (including employee devices), helping them stay hidden while moving through the network.
Here's what they did:
- Installed remote desktop access tools like AnyDesk and TeamViewer - the same kind real IT teams would use
- Moved around through different M&S’s internal systems to grab as much data as possible
- Targeted critical assets like password databases and user credentials
Finally, they created secret access points, hidden accounts, and scheduled tasks to make sure they could stay inside the company's network without getting noticed.
The attack
On April 24, Scattered Spider launched the DragonForce ransomware attack on M&S’ VMware ESXi servers, encrypting virtual machines that powered key systems for e-commerce, payment processing, and logistics (see figure 3).
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As a result, M&S had no choice but to shut down key systems entirely (including online orders and contactless payments), and call in top cybersecurity experts from CrowdStrike, Microsoft, and Fenix24 to contain the damage and start the recovery process (see figure 4).
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What this means for you
While M&S is a major player, the tactics used in this breach aren’t just for corporations, they work just as well against small businesses. Groups like Scattered Spider rely on common tools and stolen identities to gain trust and slip past normal security. The key lesson? Always verify the people and systems you rely on, whether they’re inside your team or external partners.
What you can do to improve cybersecurity for your business
5 quick wins to protect your business
- Train your team – teach employees to spot dodgy emails, spoofed links, and sketchy login pages.
- Use strong passwords – create long, complex passwords that include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Never reuse passwords across different accounts.
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) – this adds an extra layer of security beyond just a password.
- Stay vigilent – do not open email attachments or click on links unless you are certain of their legitimacy. If you have any doubts, report the email to your security team immediately.
- Report suspicious activity fast – if you receive unexpected MFA prompts, suspicious login alerts, or calls requesting your credentials, report them to your security team as soon as possible.
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