Vorboss cables in the City
(Picture: Verboss)A TELECOM start-up plans to offer ultra-fast internet to London businesses at cheap prices in an attack on incumbent giants BT and Virgin.
Vorboss says a shake-up of the broadband market in the capital is long overdue. It has raised £250 million from investors and has already installed 500km of fibre optic cables in zones one and two.
Founder and CEO Tim Creswick thinks rivals are in for a shock. Vorboss will charge businesses £650 a month for 10 gigabites of internet capacity compared to the 1 gig that is typical for businesses.
That is much cheaper than rivals presently offer.
He said: “A lack of abundant broadband means businesses are being constrained. Either the network can’t technically deliver, or the business model depends on them selling you as little broadband as they think they can get away with.”
Creswick reckons 70% of the UK’s demand for high-speed internet exists in central London and thinks businesses are ill-served by the big players.
He said: “The status quo has been unchanged for years. We think our offer is highly disruptive and game changing in quite a lazy and opaquely priced industry where customer service has generally been pretty poor.”
Vorboss has 350 staff at offices in Broadgate and is owned by the Fern Trading Group.
It believes BT’s Openreach network in particular is not fir for purpose in a post Covid world where reliable, fast, internet is vital.
Vorboss said in a statement: “The majority of London businesses are reliant on legacy Openreach infrastructure, which can only be accessed through resellers. The growing reliance on technology and the steady shift towards cloud-based infrastructure has increased dependency and bandwidth demands on fibre network providers.”
“London generates a GDP of over £500 billion; yet, many businesses remain at the mercy of restrictive telecommunications products and business models,” said Creswick. “These legacy networks are a limiting factor in critical technology decisions, which can restrict growth. Our network is unrivalled in both scale and quality, and our sole focus is enabling business growth.”
Theo Blackwell MBE, Chief Digital Officer for London, said: “The Mayor of London is committed to world-class digital connectivity for London's businesses and is creating an investment climate that infrastructure providers can trust. It is great to see Vorboss launch today, with a focus on enabling growth across core sectors where London has a global advantage like tech, financial services, creative industries, and property. Success in these areas will support our plans to boost our capital’s economy and create new jobs.”
