Connectivity
Leased line vs business broadband
One is dedicated, guaranteed and pricier; the other is shared, fast and far better value. Most businesses don't need the top tier. Here's how to tell which you do.
The plain starting point: most businesses don't need a leased line, and we'll say so when that's the case. Business broadband is fast, well-supported and far cheaper, and it does the job for the majority of teams. A leased line earns its higher cost only when the difference really matters to you — so it's worth understanding exactly what that difference is.
Shared vs dedicated
Business broadband shares network capacity with other users in your area, so it's excellent value but can dip at busy times. A leased line is dedicated entirely to you — its speed doesn't waver no matter what your neighbours are doing. If a consistent, predictable connection is critical (not just usually-fine), that's the key reason to step up.
Upload speed
Broadband is typically much faster downloading than uploading. A leased line is symmetrical — the same both ways. This matters more than people expect: cloud backups, video calls, sending large files and hosting anything in-house all lean on upload speed, and that's where shared broadband shows its limits first.
Guarantees and fix times
A leased line comes with an SLA — guaranteed performance and priority fixes. Business broadband has proper business-grade support, but it's best-effort rather than guaranteed. If an hour offline costs you serious money, the guarantee is worth paying for. If a rare outage is an annoyance rather than a crisis, it probably isn't.
How to decide
Ask what downtime actually costs you, and whether your work leans heavily on upload. Heavy cloud reliance, phones and payments over the line, or a big team that simply stops when the connection does — that's leased-line territory. A smaller team with everyday needs is well served by business fibre, often with 4G failover added for resilience at a fraction of the cost.
FAQs
Common questions
Is a leased line worth the extra cost?
Only if the difference matters to your business — guaranteed performance, symmetrical speed and priority fixes. If downtime costs you real money or you lean heavily on upload, yes. If business broadband meets your needs, paying for a leased line is money you don't need to spend.
Can business broadband be reliable enough?
For most teams, yes — especially business fibre with proper support and 4G failover added. That combination gives you strong speed and resilience without leased-line cost. We'll tell you straight when broadband is enough.
What if I'm not sure which I need?
Tell us how your team works and what downtime would cost you, and we'll recommend the right tier — broadband, fibre or a leased line — rather than defaulting to the most expensive option.
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Ready when you are.
Tell us what's slowing your business down. We'll tell you exactly how we'd fix it — plainly, with no obligation.