Vorboss CEO Tim Creswick Talks Ofcom Regulation, AI and Broadband Vouchers

6. One of the changes taking place in the current market is the merging landscapes of FTTP style Passive Optical Networks (PON) and Leased Lines. In the past if you wanted a high capacity and dedicated fibre optic line then the only option was an Ethernet (leased line) solution, but FTTP makes multi-gigabit speeds much more accessible and narrows the gap between the two approaches. Not to mention middle ground solutions like Ethernet over FTTP (EoFTTP).

Naturally, Vorboss has a clear interest in this area, and I wondered what your views are on how this may develop over the coming years?

Tim said:

We’re watching that technology evolution, but there’s little doubt for me that PON cannot match the same levels of resilience and service reliability we’re capable of with a Direct Internet architecture.

I think the architectures remain materially different.

Headline download speeds might be similar in theory, but we’ve seen both Openreach and Nexfibre publicly talking down their capability to deliver 25G and 50G PON at scale in any reasonable timeframe.

We are seeing increasing demand for seamless and highly reliable connectivity, especially at peak times. Direct Internet gives a much higher resilience to the overall network asset. In the not too distant future, a 100Gbps line will be the norm – and businesses that need that connectivity won’t want to be sharing it.

7. At present, it seems as if you can’t turn a news page without somebody mentioning Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well as other advancements like quantum cryptography. What are your views on how you see these developments influencing your own network, particularly in terms of bandwidth demands and network management?

Tim said:

I’m a believer in Nielsen’s law of internet bandwidth – put simply, that high-end bandwidth need grows by 50% per year. AI applications require a huge amount of data in order to give a usable experience, especially when the use case is real time.

The latest GPT-4o update is a good example of why bandwidth will only increase, with more focus on analytics of images, video and voice, including real-time translation.

But bandwidth growth is less about AI specifically, and more about the reality that we’re using more remote computing in everything we do – often not even a conscious choice we make, but rather the result of the way our devices are configured.

That’s true whether we’re working on a Word document, driving a Tesla, or dictating a voice note to our iPhones.

We’ve built our network to cater for Nielsen’s law, and we’re confident we can stay ahead of – and capitalize on – the demand.

8. Ofcom are just starting the process of research for their next major wholesale focused Telecoms Access Review 2026 (TAR), which will cover the 2026 to 2031 period. Such reviews often look at what regulatory changes may be needed to help boost network coverage, investment and competition in both the UK’s full fibre broadband (e.g. FTTP) and business connectivity (e.g. Ethernet / Leased Lines) markets.

For example, the last review delivered changes to Openreach’s copper line pricing, Dark Fibre Access, new Quality of Service (QoS) targets and regulation of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) based broadband lines. What kind of core changes would you like to see the regulator make in their next review, and why?

Tim said:

The approach that Ofcom has taken since the last market review in 2021 is working well; it has cultivated billions in private investment and injected competition into a market structure historically dominated by an incumbent. Ofcom pitched the conclusions of the WFTMR as establishing a 10-year framework. We would then welcome the continuation of the steady and predictable regulatory environment that we currently have, especially given the macro-economic environment of a high cost of capital and low economic growth.

If Ofcom is to alter anything, I would welcome measures that protect the competition that is emerging, or equip business customers to benefit from it.

With that in mind, in its TAR statement, Ofcom is right to keep its focus on monitoring BT and Openreach’s dominance; the job of creating a truly competitive market is far from done. Despite increasing network-level competition, BT Group still holds substantial market share in both consumer and business services. Any softening of regulatory controls risks opening the door to BT leveraging that dominance to deter further investment in its competitors.

As for what could be done to help customers benefit from increased competition, we have asked Ofcom to consider the extension of its currently consumer-centric fixed line automatic compensation scheme to business connectivity. We’ve commissioned research that has shown that businesses have very little faith in compensation claims, and that compensation overall remains an area of high dissatisfaction for them. The auto-comp scheme has been a success for consumers, pushing service providers to improve quality, while giving customers reassurance that compensation is real and tangible. We think the same benefits would be realised for businesses. It would force an uplift in network performance, and in turn drive a much-needed economic boost. We have shared our research with Ofcom and have since introduced automatic compensation for our own customers.

We’re actively engaged in other parts of Ofcom’s work, too. We’re a proud member of Ofcom’s Women In Tech initiative, having joined in 2023. More than a third of our technicians are women, and we have ambitious commitments to make that 50/50 in 2027. Encouraging and welcoming diversity – be that gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic background – is an important part of our company culture. Our training academy means we can give people from any background a start in a career in telecoms. And our policies and benefits are designed to help them grow and develop, with a focus on quality at every step.

9. One of the big stories of 2023 and 2024 has been the rising cost of network build and the difficulty of attracting fresh investment while interest rates remain high. Many network operators have been impacted by these challenges, which in some cases has resulted in job losses and a slower roll-out, as well as a rise in consolidation between networks.

How has Vorboss been coping with these challenges, and what are your views on the growing drive toward market consolidation?

Tim said:

I wouldn’t be alone in saying that consolidation in some form is inevitable. But I don’t think this will rapidly reduce the number of operators to a small set of larger players. With the cost of capital so high by comparison to when many networks secured investment, things are going to get difficult for the networks that don’t have the revenue base to recover the cost of capital. Merging two networks with low take up doesn’t solve the problem.

I should add that the business connectivity market is more mature than WLA/residential. In our market, channel partners and intermediaries are much more familiar with navigating a multi network landscape. Combining that with a much higher average revenue per customer, enterprise focused networks face different commercial incentives and challenges to the residential altnets. The relationship with the customer and meeting their specific, often bespoke needs is the priority – and that’s what we’re good at. The far higher number of customers required in a residential altnet model doesn’t gel with that approach. That’s a big part of why we don’t have a mixed residential/business model.

Also, I think we’re going to see enterprise demand for higher capacity, reliable and resilient connectivity significantly increase. A lot of network operators aren’t geared up for that today, and capital being harder to secure will only increase the challenge of upgrading network infrastructure to match – let alone exceed – demand.

10. Some years ago the Government offered a Broadband Connection Voucher scheme that was, unlike the current schemes (that focus on rural properties), also available to businesses in many urban areas to help them upgrade their internet connections. Do you think the re-introduction of something like this might help to tackle some of the slowspots and notspots that can still remain in dense urban areas?

Tim said:

Whilst it might seem counter-intuitive, I’m against the idea of providing subsidy in areas where there isn’t clear evidence that a commercial solution can’t work. Of course, anything that reduces the cost for customers to buy your service is attractive, but subsidy interventions can have unintended consequences and can crowd out private investment.

I would much rather see support for businesses in navigating quality of service in their choice of internet provider. In consumer broadband we have Ofcom complaint figures, automatic compensation and annual best tariff notifications. These all help inform customer choice and drive service providers to continually improve. Let’s use the same tools to help business customers, and drive higher standards of business internet.

11. Finally, where you do think Vorboss will be in 5 or 10 years time?

Tim said:

In five years’ time, London enterprise demand for high capacity internet access will have outstripped what’s offered by the majority of players in the market. At the same time, security, reliability, and quality of service will have become more important to businesses than headline download speeds.

That’s the future that we’re predicting, and it’s a future that we’ve designed Vorboss to excel in. We will be uniquely placed to meet that demand.

The network we’ve built is inherently scalable in capacity, so we will be able to evolve our service offering to always be at the cutting edge. We’ll still be focused on connecting London’s business community, and we’ll still be pushing for new standards in connectivity and quality.

We’d just like to send our thanks to Timothy for taking time out from his busy schedule to share his thoughts with us on the future of his business and wider market.