A new survey of 250 business leaders from London’s smaller and medium-sized firms, which was conducted by Censuswide and Development Economics for UK broadband ISP G.Network, has claimed that SMEs are missing out on an estimated £28bn in annual revenue due to “slow and unreliable workplace broadband“.

According to the polling, 52% of senior leaders and business owners among London’s SMEs have considered moving office location in order to get better access to faster and more reliable workplace internet, with 4 in 10 stating they can’t serve clients in the way they’d like due to problems with slow or unreliable office internet.

Furthermore, a quarter of respondents admitted that problems with slow or unreliable broadband have caused them to lose business, while 47% identified employee connectivity in the workplace as an area undermined by poor connectivity and over 40% said that their ability to serve customers suffered.

The polling claims that these “broadband issues” have also negatively affected productivity for a quarter of all employees at the capital’s SME-size businesses over the last three months. The estimated annual lost output due to these broadband issues is put at £5.34bn Gross Value Added (GVA).

On the flip side, SMEs identified quicker response times to clients and customers as two of the key benefits they could reap from improved office broadband connectivity. The study claims that the high costs and complex processes involved in securing reliable services remain “prohibitive for many SMEs“, although this does somewhat depend upon what each business actually requires.

Kevin Murphy, CEO of G.Network, said:

“Digital connectivity is at the heart of London’s economy, but despite extensive availability the SMEs we spoke to for the research are still suffering because connections are too costly and complicated. As an SME ourselves, we understand the challenges they’re facing, and we’re determined to put an end to slow internet speeds. Whether we are serving a hairdresser or a hedge fund, our mission is to provide businesses of all sizes with the reliable gigabit connectivity essential for their success.”

The survey fails to identify whether all the connectivity issues experienced are actually related to the underlying broadband link or local network issues within the office, but we suspect it’s probably a combination of both. In addition, it appears to overlook the importance of having effective redundancy for main link disruption, which when correctly implemented should be able to mitigate a lot of the negative impacts upon revenue.

Some other issues that could do with being explored further in the survey centre around the availability of network choice and take-up. Much of London does have a fair choice of different network providers (e.g. Openreach, Virgin Media, CommunityFibre, Hyperoptic, G.Network etc.) and so if one ISP is performing poorly then there are often other, potentially better, options already available. But London does still have some patches of poor connectivity too.

Naturally G.Network, which claims to have covered a total of 330k “connectable premises“ in the city with their own full fibre network (an independent estimate in July 2024 put them closer to 250k), has a vested interest in surveys like this because they encourage businesses to consider alternative providers.

A Connected Britain Preview   

Connected Britain 2024 is just around the corner and, with just days left to go, it is only fitting that we highlight some of our amazing keynote sessions, featuring some of the biggest names in the UK telecoms industry.   

Day 1 – Wednesday 11 September 

CXO Interviews 

Intimate discussions with some of industry’s biggest names  

Marc Allera, CEO EE (08:50)  

Lutz Schüler, CEO, Virgin Media O2 (10:00)  

Katie Milligan, Chief Commercial Officer, Openreach; Rajiv Datta, CEO, nexfibre; Greg Mesch, Founder & CEO, CityFibre; Stephanie Liston, Chair of the Board, Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority & Chair, Digital Connectivity Forum (12:10) 

Panel Discussions 

Bringing together speakers from across the telecoms industry and beyond to tackle the sector’s biggest challenges 

Securing the UK’s position as a global tech leader (09:20) 

What are the barriers to success for the UK tech sector? What is needed from govt, industry and other key stakeholders to overcome these challenges? 

Speakers:  

Sasha Qadri, Moderator 

Paul Alexander, Head of Cloud Infrastructure Business, Europe, Nokia 

Julian David, CEO, techUK 

Iain Milligan, Chief Network Officer, Three UK 

Keri Gilder, CEO, Colt Technology Services 

The changing landscape of the UK fibre market (12:50) 

Exploring the past year’s developments in the fibre market and tackling major topics including investment, competition, regulation, and deployment strategy. 

Speakers: 

Stephanie Liston, Chair of the Board, Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority & Chair, Digital Connectivity Forum 

Rajiv Datta, CEO, nexfibre 

Rebecca Molyneux, Deputy Director, Broadband Regulation and Investment, DSIT 

Katie Milligan, Chief Commercial Officer, Openreach 

Greg Mesch, Founder & CEO, CityFibre 

Daren Baythorpe, CEO, ITS 

Digital Britain: Connecting our nation (17:40) 

Discussing technology, policy, and innovation in the UK telecoms industry and what impact these can have on wider society. 

Speakers: 

Duncan Golestani , Correspondent, ITN 

Jaynesh Patel, Head of Telecoms and Spectrum Policy, techUK 

Ian Smith, Head of UKTIN, UKTIN 

Gareth Elliott, Director of Policy and Communications, Mobile UK 

Presentations and Updates: 

Mission Critical is Relative (09:10) 

Paul Alexander, Head of Cloud Infrastructure Business, Europe, Nokia 

Innovation and imagination: helping our industries lead the world (10:15) 

Dame Melanie Dawes, Chief Executive, Ofcom 

Diamond Sponsor presentation: ITS (12:40) 

Daren Baythorpe, CEO, ITS 

Enabling a Digitally Connected Society: How Cornerstone Connects the Four Corners of the UK (17:20) 

Jamie Hayes, Chief Sales and Commercial Officer, Cornerstone 

Connected Britain 2024 promises to be bigger and better than ever before. It’s not too late to join us! Last minute tickets are available here 

News 

The new hires come as Quickline has recently secured its fourth government contract under the Project Gigabit programme 

East Yorkshire based ISP Quickline Communications has expanded its senior leadership team with three key appointments to support the company’s ongoing growth. 

The Project Gigabit  contracts will bring full fibre broadband to nearly 170,000 premises through public funding, and up to 360,000 homes and businesses when combined with Quickline’s commercial build. The network expansion covers Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, where communities such as Escrick, Woodsetts, and Wroot are already benefiting from improved connectivity. 

To oversee sales, customer service, and retention, Quickline has appointed Julian Burton as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO). Burton brings over two decades of telecoms experience, having previously held roles at Vodafone, O2, and Tesco. 

Julia Dettmar has been named General Counsel and Company Secretary, responsible for corporate governance and legal affairs. Dettmar has extensive legal experience, including positions at Cable & Wireless and Vodafone UK. 

Finally, Dan Hague joins as Project Gigabit Delivery Director, overseeing the delivery of the government contracts. Hague has a strong background in fibre and telecoms, previously working at GoFibre, Hyperoptic, and BT Openreach. 

As pointed out by the company press release, these appointments were made ahead of the company’s latest Project Gigabit wins.  

“As we continue to scale up the business it is imperative that we have the right team in place to lead the way through our next chapter of growth. These appointments of highly experienced executives, which were made ahead of our Project Gigabit wins, position us well for the future,” said CEO Sean Royce. 

Quickline is aiming to provide gigabit-capable broadband to over 500,000 homes and businesses in the North of England and beyond by 2025. 

In an exclusive interview with Total Telecom last month, Sean Royce explained the details of Quickline’s most recent £250 million debt facility package.  

“UKIB and NatWest, who we’ve done the deal with, they see the opportunity in rural areas – they see that these areas are being left behind,” he said. “They’re seeing an operator who is laser focused about trying to build where nobody else is building. And that’s really important point today in the UK.”  

Sean Royce is speaking at this week’s Connected Britain on the “Customer uptake” panel, 11-12 September in London. Last minute discounted tickets are available here! 

Also in the news:
Coastguard’s emergency network gets an upgrade from Telent
AT&T fined nearly $1m over 911 failings
How will the CityFibre–Sky deal really affect BT?

News 

The deal builds on a pre exiting agreement between the two companies 

Sky Business has signed a new long-term agreement with ITS to provide fast and reliable Ethernet connectivity to businesses across the UK.  

The partnership combines ITS’s fibre network with Sky Business’s core network to offer high-quality, ultrafast services, the press release explains. 

According to ITS, their network currently extends to 25% of all of the UK’s commercial premises. 

“Sky Business’s new partnership agreement with ITS will enable us to expand our reach and introduce an exciting new offering to deliver a robust network experience for more businesses across the UK,” said Damian Saunders, Managing Director, Sky Business Hospitality, Mid-Market & Wholesale.  

“This means we are now uniquely positioned to provide our customers with a broader, combined infrastructure, underpinned by the best of both networks and our best-in class service wrap,” he continued. 

“We have invested heavily in our full fibre infrastructure which has been designed and is being rolled out specifically to serve businesses across the UK. Driving business full fibre uptake through Tier 1 partners is at the heart of our growth strategy as we work towards our ambition to be the UK’s best option for last mile business-grade connectivity, echoed Daren Baythorpe, ITS CEO. 

Join Sky and ITS at Connected Britain, THIS WEEK on 11-12 September. Last minute discounted tickets are available here! 

Also in the news:
Coastguard’s emergency network gets an upgrade from Telent
AT&T fined nearly $1m over 911 failings
How will the CityFibre–Sky deal really affect BT?

Mobile network operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today continued with their effort to boost 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) capacity across the UK, not least by expanding their ongoing roll-out of small cells into the central part of Reading (town) in Berkshire – supported by Ontix.

Small cells are like mini shoebox sized mobile (radio) base stations, which have been designed to deliver limited coverage (usually up to around 80-120 metres) and thus tend to be more focused on busy urban areas and specific sites – it’s not uncommon to find these sitting on top of lampposts, CCTV poles or old payphone cubicles (i.e. they can be more cost-effective than building new street assets or trying to secure wayleaves on buildings etc.).

In this case the new small cells have been deployed in some of the busiest areas across the town, including at Reading Station, Reading College, Reading Museum, the Abbey Ruins, and the Oracle Shopping Centre. With over 20 million people passing through Reading Station and over 1 million through the Oracle Shopping Centre each year, the small cells will provide a crucial boost to network capacity for these high-footfall areas.

Steven Verigotta, Director of Radio & Mobile Backhaul Delivery at VMO2, said:

“Small cells are an effective way of increasing local network bandwidth in busy areas and play an important role in allowing us to keep up with customer demand.

With upgrade programmes underway right across our network, we’re working hard to ensure our customers consistently receive an exceptional network experience wherever they are and even at the busiest times.”

VMO2 has previously also worked closely with Ontix to deploy small cells in high-demand areas including London, Birmingham and the South East of England, as well as a recent deployment in Skegness. Not to mention their similar efforts alongside Freshwave and other partners.

As a side note, it’s worth reminding readers that Virgin Media and O2 recently used small cells as part of a trial with parent Liberty Global, which deployed 4G and 5G capable “smart poles” on top of their existing fibre broadband cabinets to help boost mobile network coverage and capacity (here). But there’s no mention of that playing a role in this deployment.

Press Release

Visitors, residents, businesses and students in Reading town centre will begin to benefit from an improved mobile experience and faster speeds after the first Virgin Media O2 small cells are deployed across the Borough.

Virgin Media O2 and Ontix partnered to bring small cells to Reading where the innovative technology is already boosting mobile capacity and reducing network traffic in major destinations at busy times.

The small cells have been deployed in some of the busiest areas across the town, including at Reading Station, Reading College, Reading Museum, the Abbey Ruins, and the Oracle Shopping Centre. With over 20 million[1] people passing through Reading Station and over a million[2] through the Oracle Shopping Centre each year, the small cells will provide a crucial boost to network capacity for these high-footfall areas, helping both residents and visitors.

By using small cells, which are quicker and easier to deploy, Virgin Media O2 customers are benefiting from improved coverage faster than would otherwise be possible. The operator is working with Ontix on a rollout across the country.

Previously, Virgin Media O2 and Ontix have closely worked together to deploy small cells in high-demand areas including London, Birmingham and the South East of England, as well as a recent deployment in Skegness. Small cells continue to bring value as a cost-effective solution to improving network capacity in dense urban environments, commercial centres and visitor hotspots.

Richard Williams, Director of Acquisition at Ontix, said: “We’re proud to be the first Neutral Host company bringing small cells to Reading. Working closely with Virgin Media O2, we ensured the delivery of this project was speedy, cost-effective and power-efficient. From local businesses, commuters and university students to shoppers and tourists seeking cultural hotspots, small cells provide faster network speeds and reduced network congestion for all, and we’re excited to see the results of this across Reading.”

Steven Verigotta, Director of Radio & Mobile Backhaul Delivery at Virgin Media O2, said: “Small cells are an effective way of increasing local network bandwidth in busy areas and play an important role in allowing us to keep up with customer demand.”

“With upgrade programmes underway right across our network, we’re working hard to ensure our customers consistently receive an exceptional network experience wherever they are and even at the busiest times.”

How is the UK’s connectivity landscape changing in 2024? Join the idustry in discussion at Connected Britain 2024, taking place on Wednesday! Get your tickets today

A new report from the UK Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (UKWISPA), which was put together by Intelligens Consulting, has claimed that fostering greater use and acceptance of the latest innovations in fixed wireless broadband networks by the government could deliver £4bn of “quantifiable impact” in the UK.

The government’s Building Digital UK (BDUK) agency and its £5bn Project Gigabit broadband roll-out programme have, thus far, tended to prefer network solutions that adopt full fibre (FTTP) technologies, particularly when it comes to build contracts awarded under their main Gigabit Infrastructure Subsidy (GIS) scheme.

Full fibre lines are generally regarded as being more future-proof and less prone to issues like interference over distance (this is not an issue at all in the local Access network). But we have seen some gigabit wireless networks being built into rural areas using the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme (GBVS) too, albeit usually to a much smaller scale.

The new report (PDF) thus attempts to highlight how encouraging a greater focus on fixed wireless networks, albeit as a “complement” and “synergistic counterpart” to gigabit fibre technologies, “can deliver policy objectives more quickly and more cheaply, potentially saving taxpayers GBP 1 billion, while helping consumers benefit by over GBP 3 billion by advancing high speed broadband services to rural areas.”

The figure of £3bn+ above appears to partly stem from a model that uses wireless networks to more rapidly “advance gigabit” broadband services to cover 1.8 million homes (mostly in rural areas) by an average of 3 years (vs building via FTTP), although the calculation for this seems very simplistic and appears to focus on cost vs take-up.

The report states that the economic impact “depends on the assumed value of fast connectivity and the level of takeup“. According to the report, consumers will typically pay around £35 per month (for a service offering 100Mbps), which is used as a “guide as to the minimum consumers value it“.

Some, like those working from home or relying a lot on the internet due to a disability, may find it much more valuable, perhaps averaging at around £50 a month, said the report. The assumed take-up is 60% (i.e. similar to the BDUK’s original SFBB “superfast broadband” programme with mostly FTTC). But that was admittedly mostly achieved via a well-recognised network with hundreds of ISPs in support, which may be harder for Wireless ISPs to pull off.

“Combining these assumptions suggests that 60% of the 3 million relevant premises (being the 10% of the UK total expected to see no firm date for connection by 2025) could see benefit, of around £1,800 each, in total over the three years before fibre arrives. This is a total benefit, to consumers, of GBP 3.24 billion,” said the report.

The report also presents five recommendations for policymakers, which it says would be needed in order for them to “recognise the significant role of wireless technologies as part of the technology mix needed to support the Government to deliver its gigabit ambition.” This covers the need for streamlined procedures and regulatory processes that accommodate smaller wireless operators, among other things.

David Burns, Chairman of UKWISPA, said:

“This report highlights the huge role of FWA alongside fibre in achieving the UK’s ambitions to provide comprehensive access to gigabit broadband connectivity. Not only can roll-out be accelerated, but both urban and rural locations can get their enhanced connectivity sooner, and at less cost.

UK Infrastructure Investors, the DSIT, Ofcom and BDUK are all slowly realising the untapped potential that FWA has in accelerating gigabit internet rollout, and the advantages when built alongside fibre networks. This report sets out key areas and policy directions that can maximise this opportunity for the UK.”

As we always say when it comes to predictive studies like this – trying to accurately gauge the economic impact of deploying a faster broadband technology is notoriously difficult, not least since most premises won’t be starting from a point of zero connectivity (i.e. 30Mbps+ capable broadband is now available to 98% of UK premises and gigabit speeds will soon cross the 85% line, but this does fall when only looking at rural areas).

However, we do agree that wireless broadband solutions have always had a useful role to play, which could definitely be expanded upon to help service some of the remotest locations. But at the same time, a lot of the supporting ISPs aren’t exactly household names and real-world consumer experiences have tended to vary quite a lot between different providers and wireless technologies.

Fixed wireless providers also have competition from the ever-expanding reach of 4G and 5G based mobile broadband networks, as well as SpaceX’s Starlink network and the others that are due to launch into the same LEO satellite space.

One other challenge is that Project Gigabit has already awarded most of its GIS contracts and those that remain continue to focus on FTTP solutions, which suggests that UKWISPAs call for a greater focus on fixed wireless may be at risk of arriving too late to the party.

Nevertheless, the government has long recognised that homes in very hard to reach areas may not get FTTP due to the extreme build costs involved (here). But the alternative solutions discussed for those have tended to focus on the final 0.3% of the country (i.e. under 100,000 premises) – quite a bit less than the 1.8 million being talked about earlier.

A Silicon Valley company called Airvine has developed a rather unique network bridge that can extend a Local Area Network (LAN) running at multi-Gigabit speeds, seemingly using only WiFi style wireless signals via the 2.4GHz and 6GHz bands, through “up to” 30cm (12″) of solid concrete walls – it can even bend around 90-degree solid concrete corners.

As somewhat of a general rule, wireless networking signals don’t usually like going through solid walls and the thicker they are, the more trouble you’ll have. Suffice to say that 30cm of solid concrete would normally be a bit of a problem and any signals that do get through (usually indirectly) will run at extremely slow data speeds.

However, instead of solving this problem by using cables and a powerful drill, Airvine has developed a new type of point-to-point layer 2 network bridge – called the WaveCore 1000-RH. Stick one of these on either side of the wall and it creates a “bridge” for your network to expand onto the other side of the wall. In testing it is claimed to have delivered speeds just shy of 4Gbps through 30cm of concrete (officially, the device only claims speeds of “over” 2.5Gbps through 20.3cm of concrete).

Concrete walls average 20 cm (8″) or more in Commercial Real Estate (CRE) buildings around the world. These types of walls can form a building’s perimeter, serve as interior load bearing walls and as protection for spaces such as fire control or network server rooms.

Vivek Ragavan, CEO of Airvine, said:

“We have proven with customers for more than a year now that the WaveTunnel provides cost-effective Gigabit-speed connectivity in MDUs, factories, warehouses, conference centers and other similarly large properties.

However, we could not achieve the company’s founding vision of providing pervasive indoor wireless connectivity because we literally kept running into concrete barriers. The WaveCore system surmounts these obstacles and enables us to connect wirelessly any building with any floor plan anywhere.”

The performance of this setup (we want to call it Concrete-Fi) will probably vary a bit depending upon the type of concrete (cement and aggregate combinations, not to mention any steel supports), although it’s a fascinating solution that we haven’t really seen done quite like this before. But how much the kit actually costs is currently unclear, although the fact it’s aimed at higher end users (businesses etc.) suggests it probably isn’t cheap.

One other problem, at least from the UK perspective, is that it seems like the WaveCore uses both the lower and upper parts of the 6GHz spectrum band. Doing that is fine in the USA, but in the UK Ofcom is still procrastinating over what to do about the upper 6GHz (6425 to 7125MHz) band (here); it’s unclear how their desire for a hybrid approach that shares this band with mobile operators may impact this kit.

Some customers of mobile network operator Three UK, specifically those who are taking one of their 4G and 5G powered unlimited Three Home Broadband packages, have – for the best part of a year – been complaining about an intermittent connectivity problem that is sporadically disrupting their use of various internet services.

The issue, which has in recent months been experienced by members of ISPreview’s forum and is also covered via a 41-page thread on Three’s forum (here), first surfaced in late 2023 and has thus far proven tricky for the operator to identify and resolve. Part of the reason for this may be because mobile connectivity is inherently quite variable and this can make it difficult to spot something more specific, particularly if it’s intermittent.

The problem itself appears as if it could be some sort of fault within Three’s network routing/peering or internet-filtering system that causes sporadic problems for some users on active connections. For example, in some cases it throws up “Secure Connection Failed” (SSL / HTTPS) notices when loading certain websites (similar to if an SSL certificate had expired) or will pause the loading of a website mid-page, which usually goes away after a few refreshes.

In other cases the issue may cause problems when attempting to login to certain online services, such as Xbox Live, PSN, Battlenet, various banking apps and so forth (several attempts may be needed before the login process succeeds). Customers affected by the issue have also reported stuttering while streaming videos via Disney+ and some other platforms, as well as connection drops during online multiplayer games etc.

The problem doesn’t appear to be related to a specific mobile router (Hub), as it occurs in the same way on several of the operator’s supplied devices (e.g. ZTE MC801A, Zyxel NR5103EV2 etc.) – irrespective of whether you’re connected to it via wires (LAN) or WiFi (WLAN). Changing the operator’s APN profile or trying different DNS servers also has no impact.

Example Customer Complaint 1

“I am experiencing it all the time, especially in the evening when I am using the internet at home most. Sometimes I need to force the refresh 3,4 times before the page loads up correctly.”

Example Customer Complaint 2

“I have had the same issues related here. It started happening a few months ago, it was fine for a year or so and I contacted support. They’ve swapped me from a Huawei hub to a Zytel hub, got a replacement SIM and it’s all still happening. Connection is good with fast speeds but often get the connection failed error when loading websites or checking out. Reloading the page will fix it. It happens on all devices, when people come to visit it happens on their devices too. Happens on my ethernet cable connected devices too.”

Example Customer Complaint 3

“I was seeing this issue months and months ago but (maybe coincidentally) by introducing a mesh network in the house, it went away. It’s back with a vengeance now though – I’m seeing the same PS Networking issues this last 2 days to the point where I’m nearly banned for the season from Overwatch due to the number of dropped connections on game start.”

Example Customer Complaint 4

“I also see that all the issues reported over the last 6 months or so by various users are now hitting me at once: really high latency when making a connection, inability to use banking apps reliably, stuttering when streaming from Disney+, SSL errors when using github,com and as mention above, connection drops when connecting to online games. I’m seeing that roughly 7 out of 10 Overwatch games disconnect when attempting to connect to the server which means I’m now banned until the end of the season (mid October). Great, I’m obviously less than impressed.”

However, customers affected by the issue did find that using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) usually resolved the problem, although VPNs are not a complete solution and won’t work well for every single situation and service. But if you are suffering from this then using a VPN is at least a temporary way to avoid the annoyance. One free option that some people use is Cloudflare WARP.

A Three spokesperson told ISPreview:

“We are aware of some connectivity issues affecting a small number of home broadband users. We are investigating these and will update customers as soon as possible. We continue to encourage our customers to report issues so that we can optimise the home broadband service.”

We should point out that this is by no means the first time that we’ve heard about such issues occurring on Three’s network, particularly the SSL error, which has periodically occurred in the past too. Quite why it crops up we don’t yet know, but the operator is actively analysing data from a number of live traces in order to identify the root cause.

The latest issue did appear to crop up during part of the operator’s IPv6 rollout, which initially disrupted some VPN clients and device connectivity to their Hub, but we don’t currently believe this to be the cause of the above problem (although it can’t yet be ruled out).

Finally, one of Three UK’s customers has just been told that Three’s “Major Incidents” team is now working with Nokia on this problem, “who in turn are working with Microsoft“. Make of that what you will. Meanwhile, the long.. wait for a solution continues.

Business broadband ISP and managed service provider Equity Networks has recently become the latest company in a growing list to irritate some of their UK customers, which it did by automatically adding a paid (£12.99 a month) internet security feature – ‘SafeWeb’ – to their accounts, without first getting explicit consent.

Over the past few weeks’ we’ve reported on how both Onetsream (here) and Daisy Communications (here) have managed to attract the ire of their customers by adding an extra paid service to their accounts without first gaining express consent. Consumer laws expressly forbid this behaviour (e.g. “inertia selling“), but it can be a bit more of a grey area when it comes to businesses (B2B doesn’t enjoy the same protections).

Nevertheless, basic business ethics usually helps to ensure that companies play fair with each other, although that isn’t always the case. In the latest example, Equity Networks’ small business customers recently received an email to let them know that they’d partnered up with SafeWeb to “provide you with enhanced protection and data loss prevention capabilities“. Sounds good, except of course there’s a catch.

The service came in an “active” state as part of a 30-day free trial, but “after your trial the service will automatically continue for just £12.99 per domain, per month” and to avoid this you’d have to manually email the provider to request an opt-out. So it’s hard luck if you innocently overlooked the email, assuming it to be just another one of those disposable and unsolicited promotional spams that are so common these days.

Copy of the Equity Networks Email

One of the those affected by this appears to be taking a consumer-grade FTTC broadband line to supply their small business connection, but as this is still a B2B relationship then there aren’t many direct protections in place to prevent the behaviour. A spokesperson for Ofcom told ISPreview: “In these circumstances, the customer would need to raise their concerns directly with the company” (or a court of law, but hopefully no disputes go that far).

Generally speaking, business customers are highly unlikely to appreciate having extra paid services tacked on to their package without first gaining their consent and will probably, when the time comes, respond by voting with their feet. We did email Equity Networks on Wednesday to ask for their thoughts on this kind of offer, but the provider hasn’t responded.

None of this is to say that SafeWeb itself is a bad service, in fact it could be brilliant, but this is perhaps not the best way of introducing it.