Do it once, do it right: empowering London’s businesses with future-ready infrastructure
May 21, 2025
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4
min read
Highlights
Vorboss has built a business-only fibre network fit for the future, improving London's internet infrastructure. Historically, the UK has had a culture of under-provisioning, but a foresighted approach to infrastructure projects is essential to remaining globally competitive. An alternative to London's aging underground cables, the Vorboss network stays ahead of the upgrade cycle, providing limitless bandwidth for businesses.
Anniversaries are a time to appreciate the present, reflect on the past, and consider the future. As we celebrate another year at Vorboss, one word springs to mind when looking in the rear view mirror and the road ahead: upgrade.
We conceived Vorboss as an 'upgrade' to London's existing internet infrastructure and designed our network to be future-ready without the need for costly retrofits. By provisioning beyond peak capacity from the start, we could create a future-proofed network that didn't require constant updating to handle London's evolving data demands.
Get it right the first time
In the UK, there has long been a culture of under-provisioning. From public toilets and parking to railways and roads, we've historically adopted a 'just enough' mentality that delivers 'just enough' results.
But when the UK encounters usage peaks, its infrastructure creaks. Water systems dump sewage during periods of heavy rainfall. Railway stations close during spells of extreme weather. Energy suppliers promote off-peak use to avoid blackouts.
Whenever demand surpasses the average, there are calls to upgrade our ailing legacy systems. Just last month, the National Infrastructure Commission's five-yearly review made a series of recommendations to modernise Britain's energy, transport, and water networks to boost economic growth. The review had one overarching message: we need an upgrade.
However, large-scale infrastructure retrofits are tricky and expensive. They're a pain for the consumer. They're a headache for the utility provider. They're also wholly unnecessary if we do the project right the first time.
The Thames Barrier, for example, was designed to protect London from never-seen-before tides and huge storm surges. Commissioned in 1972 and finished ten years later, it has safeguarded London for the last 40 years without major works. Foresight in the 70s has helped a formerly flood-risked city grow into a global capital.
The same goes for tech infrastructure. In 2002, Amazon decided to revamp its computing infrastructure not just to handle its current internal IT demand but also its future growth. It moved away from unscalable computing hardware to cost-effective online data centres, effectively inventing cloud computing with the creation of Amazon Web Services in 2006. Initially designed for the support needs of its e-commerce arm, AWS generated $80 billion in revenue in 2022 and has powered the growth of thousands of businesses.
Getting it right the first time pays long-term dividends.
Designed with the future in mind
London is a 'global city' above ground—one of only two cities in the world (alongside New York) to be ranked Alpha ++ by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network for its integration and influence.
But under the streets, London is a city of ageing cables, ranking 60th worldwide for broadband speeds.
To be the world's greatest city, London needs reliable capacity that easily handles today's peak demands and tomorrow's emerging technologies. That's why, when designing our business-only fibre infrastructure, we planned a network that would always stay ahead of the upgrade cycle.
A network for the present and for posterity; one that didn't need patching up every few years or retrofitting for every new tech development.
It wasn't long ago when, as the first business network to offer 10Gbps business internet as a minimum, we were told that it was excessive bandwidth. But will it be excessive in 2025 as London's businesses harness the power and data demands of artificial intelligence? Will 100Gbps business internet be excessive when London's companies use quantum computing to revolutionise the world of work?
Between 2019 and 2023, peak traffic and internet bandwidth increased markedly (with compound annual growth rates of 30% and 28%, respectively). Those thinking 1Gbps is enough at the start of a three-year contract are quickly realising how much the goal posts move, and we're now seeing our competition playing catch up.
The end of unnecessary upgrades
London's businesses are used to operating with bandwidth limitations, so they’re always waiting for the next upgrade. But limitless bandwidth is available now.
With a future-ready network that provides 10Gbps as a minimum and scales to 100Gbps, businesses can stop thinking about bandwidth and start thinking about their business.
Just as unlimited mobile phone packages eradicated the costs of phone calls from our minds, 10Gbps connectivity will help businesses forget about the internet. No more glitchy video calls. No more buffering circles. No more costly upgrades.
As we look forward to the future, hopefully London can start forgetting about unnecessary upgrades, too. Be it improving public spaces or enhancing transport infrastructure, we should do it once, do it right.
By Tim Creswick
CEO and Founder of Vorboss
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At May's biquarterly Women in Telecoms meetup, hosted at Vorboss HQ, women from across the industry came together to share experiences, reflect on progress, and explore what real inclusion looks like.
The session, led by Natalie Strange, MD of RPS Telecoms and Head of the Women in Telecoms group, included a panel discussion with our colleagues at Vorboss about their experiences in the industry, the steps we’re taking to make telecoms more inclusive, and what's next.
Here’s how the discussion went
Meet the panel
Jade, Team Lead Engineer
Joined Vorboss at 18 as an apprentice. Now leads on-site fibre installation teams across London.
Tamryn, People & Culture Manager
Originally joined as a Training Administrator. Now helps embed inclusive policies and support systems across the organisation.
Taylor, Head of Operations
Leads the teams that connect customers and deliver our service end-to-end.
Q: What has your journey been like as a woman in telecoms?
Jade shared her positive experience:
“It’s been amazing. I knew I didn’t want to go down the university route; I wanted to get stuck in and work. Vorboss trained me from the beginning, and now I lead my own team. I genuinely love what I do.”
Tamryn, who recently came back from maternity leave, shared:
“Coming back was a big worry for me – would I still fit in? Would I be supported? The answer’s been yes. We have a parent room, a fridge for milk, and my son’s even visited the office. My son’s even visited the office!”
Q: What hiring barriers still exist in telecoms, and how are we addressing them?
Tamryn:
“For engineering roles especially, we had to rethink the language we used. The old versions were unintentionally harsh and often male-coded. Once we made them clearer and more neutral, more women applied”
Some practical changes discussed included:
- Remove industry jargon from job descriptions
- Manually review CVs instead of relying on (often biased) AI-driven filtering
- Eliminate unnecessary degree requirements
- Run diverse interview panels
Q: How can companies like Vorboss foster more inclusive environments that attract, support, and retain women – from technical roles to leadership positions?
Tamryn:
“We’ve made training fully in-house through the Vorboss Academy, so no previous experience is required. That’s opened doors to people who wouldn’t normally apply. We’ve also built internal career tracks, flexible policies, and training for inclusive management.”
Vorboss has launched these initiatives to retain talent and progress women into leadership roles:
- Internal secondments: opportunities to explore other career options internally.
- Training: manager training on inclusive team management plus annual DE&I and menopause awareness training for all staff.
- Flexibility: accommodating workforce needs, e.g. part-time contracts.
- Internal promotion: fostering internal growth means more women in senior roles, helping us retain talent.
- Listening and acting on feedback: from uniform design to policy, we want to ensure everyone feels seen.
Other policies include paid period days, free sanitary products, IVF and adoption leave, domestic abuse support, free breakfast and welfare vans.
Jade completed a secondment with our data centre team. Though she stayed in her role, she found the experience valuable:
“It was such a good learning experience. It gave me more context and helped me feel more confident in my role.”
Q: What barriers have you encountered (or seen others face), and what helped you or your teams overcome them?
Tamryn:
“Workwear. It seems small, but early on we realised all the uniforms were made for men; gloves, trousers, fireproof kit. We redesigned it all. It took time, but it meant that everyone could work more effectively.”
Q: What advice would you give to the next generation of women pursuing careers in telecoms?
Taylor had clear advice:
“Don’t assume the person you’re talking to knows more than you. Say yes to opportunities. If you fail, that’s fine. Ask for help and keep moving.”
Jade:
“Do it! It’s been life changing for me. I’m so grateful I took the chance.”
Q: What’s next for Vorboss?
We want to keep growing - not just in size, but in diversity, inclusion, and opportunity, and inspire others to follow suit.
We’ve set measurable goals for diversity and inclusion, including:
- Today: more than 1 in 3 of our technical and engineering roles are held by women.
- By 2027: we aim for 50/50 gender parity in technical and engineering roles.
- By 2028: we aim for gender parity company-wide.
We’ve signed Ofcom’s Women in Tech pledge and publish our gender pay gap annually.
About Women in Telecoms
Women in Telecoms is an initiative by Comms Council UK, created in response to growing demand from its members for regular opportunities to network, share experiences, discuss key industry topics, and exchange ideas.
Vorboss formalises strategic partnership with Roc Technologies to deliver innovative connectivity services to London's local councils.
London, [02.06.2025] – Vorboss, London's leading dedicated connectivity provider, today announces a strategic partnership with Roc Technologies to deliver best-in-class network solutions tailored specifically for local councils across the capital.
This partnership, borne of long standing collaboration between the companies, brings together two organisations committed to leveraging technology to enhance public sector services. The Vorboss high-performance, resilient network, combined with Roc Technologies' highly secure, customer-centred approach, provides local councils with a distinctive and robust solution to address real citizen needs.
Jason O’Malley, Chief of Commercial Operations at Vorboss, said: "We're excited to be partnering with Roc Technologies, whose values and customer-centric approach align closely with our own. This partnership enables us to offer unparalleled connectivity solutions, directly improving service delivery and efficiency for local councils."
Adam Jarvis , CRO at Roc Technologies, added: "Our partnership with Vorboss brings together two businesses that truly differentiate in the way they support their customers, providing highly responsive services designed to enhance their overall experience. Leveraging Vorboss' superior infrastructure and their technical experts located across London allows us to provide a combined service delivery capability that transforms how local councils manage their infrastructure, ultimately benefiting the communities they serve."
The combined expertise of Vorboss and Roc Technologies presents councils across London with an unmatched proposition: cutting-edge connectivity delivered with clarity, reliability, and a shared dedication to customer-driven outcomes.
ENDS
For further information, please contact:
Kirstie Lane
Kirstie.lane@vorboss.com
About Vorboss:
Vorboss is London’s dedicated enterprise fibre network. We are disrupting the status quo by providing London businesses with access to critical fibre infrastructure with simple, transparent pricing and London-wide coverage.
Since 2019, we've invested over £250 million into our London network. We have deployed over 700km of fibre optic cables to date, setting an unparalleled standard in both scale and quality.
We maintain complete ownership of the network that we built. This gives us the freedom to approach telecommunications differently.
Partners and customers deal directly with the engineers who built the network, and we can deliver installations and bandwidth upgrades within days, not months.
About Roc Technologies:
Who are Roc?
Roc Technologies delivers transformational IT solutions to public and private sector organisations across the UK. We are a team of brilliant minds, bringing together highly secure infrastructure, advanced cyber security, intelligent automation and modern cloud services, all supported by our 24/7 Managed Services Operations Centre. Our expertise is backed up by some of the UK’s most rigorous data and security accreditations; we’ve earned the trust of the nation’s largest and most complex organisations and have safeguarded their most sensitive data for over a decade.
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