Connectivity

What is a leased line?

A leased line is an internet connection that's yours alone — not shared with anyone, the same speed up and down, and backed by a guarantee. Here's what that buys you.

A leased line is a dedicated internet connection reserved entirely for your business. Unlike standard broadband, which shares capacity with everyone else in your area, a leased line's bandwidth is yours and yours only. That's the core idea — a private connection rather than a slice of a shared one — and everything else about it follows from that.

Dedicated and symmetrical

Two things set a leased line apart. It's dedicated, so the speed doesn't drop when the neighbourhood gets busy in the evening or at peak times. And it's symmetrical — the same speed uploading as downloading. Standard broadband is usually much slower up than down, which matters more than people expect once you're running cloud apps, video calls and backups.

Backed by an SLA

A leased line comes with a service level agreement: guaranteed performance and priority fix times if something goes wrong, rather than the best-effort support of consumer broadband. For a business where downtime costs real money, that guarantee — and the fast engineer response behind it — is a big part of what you're paying for.

Who actually needs one

Leased lines suit businesses that can't afford to be offline: lots of staff relying on cloud systems, phones and payments running over the line, or work that simply stops when the connection does. They cost more and take longer to install than broadband, because the connection is built specifically for you. For many smaller teams, business fibre does the job — we'll tell you straight which you need.

FAQs

Common questions

What's the difference between a leased line and broadband?

Broadband is shared capacity — fast and good value, but it can slow at peak times and is usually much slower uploading than downloading. A leased line is dedicated to you, the same speed both ways, and backed by a guarantee with priority fixes.

How much does a leased line cost?

It varies with location, speed and contract length — there's an install cost and a monthly fee. We'll get you a clear quote for your specific site rather than a vague range, and we'll tell you straight if fibre would do the job for less.

How long does a leased line take to install?

Longer than broadband — often a number of weeks — because the connection is built specifically for your premises. We manage the whole process and can bridge with a temporary connection if you need to be online sooner.

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