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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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.
- 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
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.
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London’s still the UK’s economic engine and one of the most innovative cities on the planet. But what’s keeping it ahead? And what needs to change to make sure it stays there?
Recorded live at Vorboss HQ during London Tech Week, this panel brought together influential figures from tech, property, and investment to talk recent news, the challenges businesses face, and the biggest opportunities shaping the future of London’s economy.
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