How much does a Leased Line cost?

What different factors are involved in determining business leased line costs?

How much does a leased line cost? is one of the questions we are most frequently asked and is an indication of how widespread the adoption of high-speed connectivity has become.

As little as 20 years ago, most people were reliant on slow, unreliable dial-up connections for internet access. In the last decade, we have become used to always-on broadband connections. Most recently, fibre has opened up a world of new opportunities for accessing content, in particular for accessing software and services from the cloud.

Knowing the cost of a leased line is crucial as businesses rely on the internet to carry out day-to-day activity and increasingly need an affordable, reliable method of connection. While broadband remains popular, for commercial operations it has many limitations. Businesses are increasingly turning to alternative methods of connection such as leased lines.

The benefits of leased lines

When broadband was first introduced it used the existing copper telephone network. Speeds were limited by the distance between premises and the exchange. Many services now use a fibre connection to a street cabinet with the final link to premises over copper, allowing for much faster connections.

Fibre broadband has a couple of drawbacks, firstly, it is a contended service; the link to the exchange is shared with multiple users, so can slow down at peak times. Secondly, it’s asynchronous, which means bandwidth for incoming data is much greater than that for outgoing. Whilst fine for domestic use, it’s a problem for business’ who need to upload significant volumes of information to cloud services.

A leased line connection eliminates these problems. It provides an exclusive fibre connection – either directly or via a street cabinet. There is no contention and no drop off in performance at peak periods. Leased lines are fully synchronous, so the bandwidth available for data is the same in both directions. Ideal for organisations using the cloud or VoIP telephone services providing a more reliable service.

Leased lines have other benefits too. As the line is exclusive, data is less likely to be intercepted in transit. Backed by service level agreements (SLAs) connection speeds are guaranteed and problems will be resolved within an agreed timescales.

Business Leased Line Types

So, now that we’ve piqued your interest, how much does a leased line cost? Obviously, the extra benefits we have discussed above mean that it’s more expensive than broadband, but there are a number of options available.

Firstly there’s the type of circuit:  Ethernet over fibre to the cabinet (EoFTTC) is a fibre connection from the exchange to a street cabinet, then a further connection to premises. Ethernet leased lines offer a direct full-fibre connection to your business. Where full fibre isn’t available, there’s could be Ethernet first mile (EFM)  EFM combines paired copper cables with some clever signal processing to provide fast speeds over a copper circuit. Finally, point-to-point leased lines allow direct links between business locations.

For small businesses, the cost of leased lines may not be an economical solution. However, larger organisations can take a number of factors into consideration. Does your operation rely on cloud services, use IP-based telephony or video conferencing services? If so a loss of internet connection or a slow and unreliable service could cost a lot of money. Therefore, you can justify the cost of a leased line against the benefits to your business.

Leasedline.co.uk work closely with the leading dedicated line providers, and can even broker dedicated internet with BT.

If you want to find out which options are best for your business, contact leasedline.co.uk online, get in touch online today.