Highlights
The UK lost £17.6 billion due to fixed business connectivity outages last year, underscoring the need for robust, reliable Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Service Level Agreements (SLAs). A well-defined SLA lets you gauge how reliable a provider's infrastructure is. The more generous the SLA, the more confidence a provider has in their network capability and reliability. It also guarantees that you will be compensated if downtime occurs.
According to our Reliability and Compensation Report, authored by Assembly Research, the UK economy lost £17.6 billion in economic output in the past year due to fixed business connectivity outages.
Billions of pounds were wasted. It's a sobering figure.
How do you, as a business, guard yourself against this?
By getting to know your internet provider's service level agreement (SLA), and what it really means.
A transparent SLA lets you gauge how robust a provider's infrastructure is. The more generous the SLA, the more confidence a provider has in their network capability and reliability. It also guarantees that you will be compensated if downtime occurs.
So, what should you expect to see in the small print? Let's explore the world of SLAs.
What is an SLA?
An SLA is a contract that outlines and defines the type of service you can expect from your business internet provider.
It should lay out how they measure your service and what compensation they will give you if they do not deliver the promised service level.
We all know reliable connectivity is paramount to your business’ internal and external functions, so SLAs are very important. They allow you to mitigate some of the impact of connectivity outages, but more importantly they serve as an indicator of the quality of the infrastructure you rely on. By scrutinising the terms, you can make informed decisions, ensuring that you choose a service that aligns with your demands.
Many businesses are in the dark
There’s low awareness surrounding business internet providers’ SLAs—and that’s an issue.
Our research finds that almost a quarter (23%) of UK fixed business connectivity customers were unsure whether their contracts even included SLAs or SLGs.
Among those familiar with their SLA, 21% didn't know if their contract specified compensation arrangements if certain service quality levels weren’t met.
If you're in the dark about your SLA, your business could be vulnerable. Commitment to high levels of compensation from providers acts as motivation to technical teams to pre-empt issues, therefore fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
The good news is you can request an SLA from your business internet service provider (ISP) if they haven't issued you one (or you haven't seen one).
The economic toll of outages
Consistent connectivity is not a luxury.
Ofcom finds that 83% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) consider communications services fundamental to their business, so much so they could not function without them.
60% of companies in London reported one or more service losses over the past year, with 28% experiencing at least three outages.
Our analysis reveals that over the last year, the average loss of economic output to London businesses as a result of internet outages was £18,620. This equates to an average 314 lost hours of productivity (nearly 40 working days) per London business.
Staggering numbers to swallow.
This highlights the importance of transparency in contractual terms, as well as auto compensation. Businesses should not be left with minimal or no compensation if the worst occurs.
As things stand, the case is clear: businesses across the UK are losing out to connectivity outages.
Don’t leave money on the table
Despite the average UK business losing over £11,000 in economic output due to connectivity outages in the past year, 61% of UK businesses surveyed reported that they did not receive compensation from their ISP.
For those that didn’t ask for compensation, the main reasons given were that they believed it was not worth the time and effort or they didn’t expect to get compensation.
Only around a third of businesses surveyed reported receiving any compensation for connectivity outages in the past year.
If only they knew it could be a seamless and automatic process.
As a result of our findings, we’ve urged Ofcom to introduce an automatic compensation scheme for fixed business connectivity providers; we want this to become the standard.
Why we love SLAs
Business internet providers can hold themselves to account by including automatic compensation clauses in their SLAs. This indicates confidence in their infrastructure and a commitment to their customers.
This is how we use SLAs at Vorboss:
- To highlight our confidence in our network
- To ensure we compensate our customers fairly and automatically if outages occur
- To establish clear expectations between our customers and us (guaranteed uptime, response times, and compensation)
We’re raising the bar by providing the most competitive SLAs in the industry, automatically compensating businesses after just 4 minutes of downtime.
SLAs should be transparent and include automatic compensation to give customers greater trust in their providers—and encourage providers to improve service quality.
The bottom line
Read your SLA, whether it’s your existing one or you’re signing up for a new contract.
If there’s anything unclear, discuss it. If you don’t have one, ask for one.
If necessary, demand a more robust SLA to safeguard against connectivity issues.
If your SLA doesn’t include auto compensation, claim compensation for outages if they occur.
Every SLA should have a silver lining.
Tell us about yourself so we can serve you best.
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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.
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.
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.
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).
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
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.
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
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 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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Want practical, jargon-free cybersecurity advice tailored for your business?
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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