Call Now At: 1800 121 721 000
Call Now At: 1800 121 721 000
A leased line is a dedicated, fixed-bandwidth data connection. It allows datahungry businesses to have a reliable, high-quality internet connection with
guarantees of upload and download speed, uptime and resilience. “Leased”
refers to the connection which is rented by the Internet Service Provider
(ISP) directly to a business, resulting in a service above and beyond what
standard broadband provides. Leased lines are known as Private Line, Point
to Point Circuit, or Data Lines. Leased lines usually have these distinctive
characteristics:
Symmetrical
Leased lines must be symmetrical. This means they have the same upload and
download speed.
Uncontended
Leased lines are – by definition – uncontended connections, not shared with
other users.
Point to point
They connect two points together, eg the ISP with a business location.
HOW DO THEY WORK?
A leased line uses exactly the same technology as fiber optic broadband. A
fiber optic leased line works by sending pulses of light down a fiber optic
cable. When you need to send data down a fiber optic cable, the equipment
at either end is on the lookout for light – namely whether the light is on or
off – representing the binary 0s and 1s of digital data. Equipment at one end
will turn lights on and off to represent 1s and 0s, and the equipment at the
other recognises this, records it and stores it back as 1s and 0s.
This data travels at the speed of light. As it is physically impossible for this to
be any faster, the only limiting factor on speed is more often how quickly the
equipment at either end can send or recognise light.
Where a leased line differs is this connection is leased to a business, so this
connection to the ISP is unique to that particular firm, rather than shared
with many thousands of others.
HOW FAST IS A LEASED LINE CONNECTION
The answer here is – obviously – very fast. With “standard” asymmetric fibre
optic broadband, the maximum download speed most see is well under
10Mbps. As mentioned earlier, as this is asymmetric and contended, this will
fluctuate and be affected by peak times throughout the day. The technical
term for this act of sharing the same fibre optic lines between many is
‘multiplexing’ and is one of the factors that lets consumer broadband
providers keep costs low.
With a fiber optic leased line, the speeds obtainable can be ridiculously fast.
– packages are available delivering up to 1Gbps. As leased lines are
uncontended symmetrical lines, you can even define how much speed you
require from a leased line to suit your personal business requirements,
meeting both your requirements for capacity and budget.
1. Reliability
If you are running a business that is internet critical, a simple DSL broadband
connection will not be reliable enough. You will need a connection that is
uncontended and offers a guaranteed speed at all times. A business leased
line provides you with a connection without contention from other
companies.
Moreover, you do not need to worry about a fair usage policy because you
can use as much data as you want for a monthly price that you agree to pay.
Your internet speed would not drop even at peak traffic hours which means
you can maintain your performance level 24/7, complete projects on time and
communicate with your clients to close the deals confidently.
2. Fast Speed
If you have a consumer-based broadband connection, the speed of your
internet connection can be affected by a number of factors such as the
number of users, the amount and the type of data you are transferring.
Moreover, at peak times, other people also use the same connection speed
even slower, which will affect the performance and productivity of your
business. However, with the lease line, it is not the case.
There is no conflict ratio with a leased line as it is a dedicated line with all the
bandwidth for you to use. Therefore, the speed is not slow even at peak
working hours, and it is not affected by the type of data being transferred.
Above all, the best thing about the leased line is that it offers symmetrical
speed, which means you will have the same upload and download speed. On
the other hand, broadband offers slower upload speed compared to
download speed.
3. Service Level Agreement
Another advantage of leased line connection is that it comes with a robust
service level agreement (SLA). These agreements describe the level of service
that you can expect from your service provider. Leased line
providers continuously monitor your internet connection so that it is fixed in
a timely manner if any fault occurs.
Sometimes the issue is fixed even before a user knows. In a business, time is
a very precious thing, and it is equal to money. For critical internet businesses,
it is unbearable to waste hours or days fixing any internet connection issue.
That is why business owners prefer dedicated leased lines over broadband
internet. In a broadband connection, there is no time guaranteed by the
provider to fix a problem.
4. Improved Communication
A leased line provides an ultra-fast speed and highly reliable internet
connection that is very helpful for companies who have team members or
clients in different areas. They can communicate and effectively interact with
team members. They can use VoIP telephony and video conferencing to
share ideas and discuss projects with clients and team members.
5. Highly Secure Connection
A leased line connection is more secure than a broadband connection. As this
connection is not shared with any other local user or business, it provides
increased security. In addition, the exchange of data takes place between
locations that you manage. Therefore, a dedicated line is great for your
business because your business information is kept in a safe location.
Leased lines are available in three different varieties: wired, wireless, or
both.
• Wired leased lines are delivered by fiber to the premises (FTTP) –
physical fiber cables which travel underground between your business
premises and your ISP's (internet service provider) supply point. Wired
leased lines work in the same way as fiber optic broadband: by
transmitting data via light pulses along the cables. We won't go into the
exact science of this because, let's face it, that's not what you're here to
read!
• Wireless leased lines are delivered by radio, via antennae installed on
your premises' roofs by your ISP. Each antenna must be within the line
of sight (LOS) of the connection route: in other words, the antennae at
your separate sites must be ‘lined up' with one another in order to
transmit data via radio signals. It sounds complicated, but this is
something your ISP will sort out.
• Leased lines that are both wireless and wired make use of both
antenna and fiber cables. The benefit here is that, if an antenna fails for
some reason, you can rely on your cables – and vice versa.
Full Fiber (also known as “Fiber Ethernet” and “Ethernet Access Direct”)
The “big daddy” of internet connections: a direct, superfast ethernet
connection over 100% fiber optic cables from the business premises to the
ISP, delivering speeds of up to around 1Gbps (with 10Gbps currently being
tested at time of writing). The fastest, most reliable, and, of course, the most
expensive.
Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM – also known as “Ethernet Broadband”)
This connection uses the traditional copper network to deliver a connection
to a business, then a full fiber ethernet connection from the exchange.
Because of this, it is ideal for businesses who do not have a local fibre cabinet.
It uses aggregated copper pairs to ensure a resilient service – if one set of
copper fails, the other takes over. This means speeds are much, much lower
than fiber, but the service is fully symmetrical and comes with resilience
guarantees and SLAs. A cheaper mid-price option.
Ethernet over FTTC (EoFTTC)
For businesses that do have access to local fiber-based cabinets, EoFTTC is
similar to EFM but even cheaper. It uses a mixture of fiber and copper, with
any drop off in speed due to the distance of a business from the local cabinet
(as the last part of the connection from the cabinet is using copper pairs).
Many providers offer this as a symmetric connection, but also capable of
“bursting” or increasing the download speed well beyond the upload.
We provide leased line through Full Fiber, Wireless Leased Lines, or both.