Beyond All-IP: Margin-Growth Opportunities in a Full Fibre World

Author

James Montague, Head of Connectivity Portfolio

Time to read

7 minutes

Date published

July 2026

The PSTN Switch Off is often framed as a deadline. For channel resellers and MSPs, it should be seen as something bigger: a turning point, an opportunity.

As the UK moves away from legacy services and towards full fibre, channel providers have a chance to redefine their role, protect their margins and build stronger, more valuable customer relationships.

The All-IP Challenge: Why the Channel Needs to Evolve

The retirement of the Public Switched Telephone Network marks the end of a long-established era in telecoms. Both businesses and consumers need to upgrade from WLR-based telephony and broadband to All-IP alternatives by 31st January 2027, or risk losing service. While this has presented a huge opportunity, it also poses a challenge come February 2027.

Broadband and connectivity services are becoming increasingly commoditised, making it easier for customers to compare services and switch between providers. Compete on price alone and you risk being drawn into a race to the bottom, where margins are squeezed and customer loyalty becomes harder to maintain.

The opportunity lies in repositioning connectivity as the foundation of a broader managed service. SMB customers increasingly want a trusted advisor who can support their wider technology needs, from connectivity and communications through to security, storage, cloud and automation. By building value-added services around the connection, you can move beyond transactional resale and create stronger, more predictable recurring revenue.

Value-Added Services Are the Route to Margin Protection

One of the most effective ways to protect margins is to build more value around the connection. Security and resilience are natural starting points because they sit close to the core connectivity proposition and address urgent customer needs.

The wider market is already shifting from capex to more predictable Everything-as-a-Service models, with SMBs looking for technology that is easier to buy, manage and support over time. Analysys Mason forecasts that services will represent 45% of UK SMB IT spend in 2026, ahead of software and hardware, while MSPs and systems integrators are expected to grow at more than twice the rate of traditional resellers and VARs over the coming years.

Every business should be adopting connectivity that is always-on and secure by design. Firewalls, SD-WAN, backup connectivity and Fixed Wireless Access all offer practical entry points to develop your connectivity proposition. They are easy for customers to understand, closely aligned to connectivity buying decisions and capable of delivering immediate business value.

Bundling these services with managed support, monitoring and advice makes your customer proposition more complete and harder to replace. It can also increase average revenue per user, create more predictable recurring revenue and help to grow your margins.

There’s also a strategic advantage. A customer who buys broadband alone may switch providers for a lower price. A customer who relies on you for connectivity, firewall management, failover, monitoring and support is far more likely to stay. Value-added services increase customer stickiness because they make you part of the customer’s ongoing operations, not just a name on their monthly bill.

Those who invest in new skills and broaden their portfolio of managed services will put themselves in a stronger position for the years ahead. For many SMBs, security, resilience and managed support are no longer optional extras; they’re becoming essential parts of a robust technology environment.

Security and Resilience Are Now Business-Critical

The demand for network security and resilience is being driven by real business risk. Cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated, with AI-powered phishing, ransomware and supply chain compromise increasing the pressure on organisations of every size. SMBs are often highly exposed because they typically lack in-house security expertise, yet they still depend on reliable digital infrastructure to operate.

In the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) found that 43% of UK businesses reported a cybersecurity incident in the previous 12 months. Yet Giacom’s research suggests that security is still not being built consistently into channel propositions. Only 11% of cybersecurity providers we surveyed included security as a mandatory service, while 44% offered security add-ons only when explicitly requested by the customer. These findings point to a clear gap between the level of risk facing SMBs and the protection routinely offered to them, highlighting the value of making security a core part of any connectivity proposition.

At the same time, resilience has become just as important as protection. Outages can be costly, disruptive and damaging to customer confidence. USwitch reports that network outages cost the UK economy an estimated £17.6 billion in the year to January 2024, while around 30% of SMBs are still operating without any kind of backup connectivity. By packaging connectivity, resilience and security together in a way that feels simple, practical and relevant, you can differentiate your proposition and win higher-value, long-term deals with SMBs.

How to Build a Stronger Proposition

To capture the opportunity beyond All-IP, you have to make value-added services easy to adopt. That means creating simple propositions that solve customer challenges without overcomplication.

• Start with the connection. Use every connectivity opportunity as a conversation about security, resilience and future readiness.
• Bundle around customer outcomes. Position services around business continuity, cyber protection and simplified management rather than product features alone.
• Make resilience standard. Build backup connections, failover and Fixed Wireless Access into the discussion from the beginning.
• Lead with trust and advice. SMBs need guidance, not complexity. Explain risk clearly and recommend the managed service best suited to their desired outcome.
• Build the right capabilities. Invest in the skills, expertise and support needed to deliver managed services well, strengthen customer relationships and create new recurring revenue opportunities.

A New Phase for the Connectivity Channel

The PSTN Switch Off may be the catalyst, but it is not the destination. The future of the connectivity channel will be shaped by those who can look beyond All-IP and build broader, more resilient customer propositions.

Connectivity will remain the foundation. But the growth will come from what you can build on top of it: secure networks, resilient access, managed support and value-added services that solve real business problems.

For those who are willing to adapt, the way forward is clear. Move from competing on price to competing on value. Shift from one-off connectivity sales to long-term managed relationships. And become the trusted technology partner SMBs need as they navigate an increasingly digital, connected and risk-aware future.

How Giacom Can Support Your Growth

Giacom is here to support you through the next phase of business growth with a portfolio of value-added services designed to meet customer demands and processes built to make it easy to do business with us.

Security:

• In-house Security Practice to help you understand how you can leverage cybersecurity across your portfolio
• Relationships with leading vendors across the security space
• Firewall, SD-WAN, antivirus, VPN and threat detection solutions to protect against common network threats to SMBs

Resilience:

• Easy Broadband Backup utilises 4G/5G to ensure customers remain online should their broadband connection fail – coming soon
• Our Ethernet Quoting Tool automatically checks broadband availability against every address, making it easy for you to add a broadband failover to every Ethernet order

From operational support through to platform capabilities, we’ve got you covered. Our Cloud Market platform enables partners to provision, support and manage connectivity, security and resilience services from multiple vendors all in one place, leveraging integrations and automations to lighten the operational load.

Discover how you can get started with security and resilience by completing the form below, and our expert teams will be in touch to arrange a meeting to discuss your growth strategy with Giacom.