The relationship between Bandwidth and Leased Line Costs.

Leased line costs in the UK typically have a bit of a bad reputation. However, leased line costs is an issue that isn’t quite as black and white as the media want us to believe. There’s a definite grey area regarding leased line costs that’s often overlooked, and it’s this grey area that demonstrates that a dedicated, uncontended, low latency connection doesn’t have to be costly. In fact, many businesses will find that leased lines are actually very cost effective when taking into account the many benefits that they bring.

One of the primary aspects affecting leased line prices in the UK is bandwidth. Of course, in general terms, the greater bandwidth you require, the more you’ll pay, but once again it isn’t quite as clear cut as that. Many leased line providers are now offering more flexible bandwidth options that allow businesses to more accurately tailor the service for their own personal needs and requirements, and, perhaps more importantly, to their own personal budgets. Here’s how leased lines are becoming more flexible:

Option 1 – Bandwidth that grows with your company

Many providers of leased lines in the UK now offer businesses the opportunity to change their leased line service – and leased line costs – as their business grows and develops and as their needs evolve. For example, businesses can opt for a 100Mbit leased line, but lower bandwidth – say 30Mbit to begin with. This means that businesses will be paying lower leased line costs, because they’ll only pay for the bandwidth they receive, but by opting for a 100Mbit bearer, there is the option to increase bandwidth up to this speed as the business grows further. It’s a great way to keep leased line costs down.

Option 2 – Bandwidth with no restrictions

The second option for businesses is to choose to have no restrictions on their leased line, which means that they’ll receive the full bandwidth available through the bearer. The advantage of this option is that there are no limitations, which makes it ideal for larger, established businesses with greater needs. Many leased line providers offer this at a fixed annual cost, which means your business won’t be penalised for making the most from the connection. Many larger businesses may find that their leased line costs are lower when selecting this option than when paying on a monthly ‘PAYG’ basis.

The impact of distance on leased line costs

The other key factor that impacts the cost of a leased line is the distance from the PoP to your premises. If you are in more rural areas its likely you will pay more as the fibre has to physically run from the PoP over the distance to your building. In rural areas there are not as many PoPs either so that can also increase the costs.

If you are in a city and close to a PoP you should be able to get good pricing on a leased line with many areas now offering 100Mb for around £200 per month.

The other cost that can occur with leased lines is ECC’s or Excess Construction Charges. These are charges that occur if the provider has to do any kind of construction work to get get the line in to your location. Common reasons these could occur include digging through the road, needing to work around a listed building or going through a railway station.

Depending on the size of the job depends on the amount of ECC’s that will be charged. This would be told to you after the site survey by openreach. ECC’s can range from £10 to £1000000 but if any were to be applicable then you can cancel your contract and look into any leased line alternatives that are available for you.

Getting the best leased line quote

If you have decided that a leased line is the best option for your business, its important to ensure you get yourself the best price available. If you search leased line comparison on google you will get a number of sites who claim to compare prices, nearly all of these are providers. Whilest they will compare the tail circuit from multiple providers they are only giving you the price they are able to get from that provider, which you may be able to get at a much lower cost from a different re-seller.

There’s a few techniques that can help you secure the best leased line quote for your business:

1. Do a Comparison – Obviously we will suggest that but its also the quickest and easiest way to see the markets pricing and use it to your advantage. You will be surprised at how much movement on price your existing provider suddenly has when you tell them you are moving your leased line to a competitor.
2. Use other service to secure a better deal all round – Adding in phone lines or cloud services to the comparison is a simple way to help the provider be encouraged to win your business.
3. Use the Gigabit voucher scheme – The governement wants more people installing 1Gb internet connections so they are offering a grant that can save you up to £2500 on installs.
4. Use timescales to your advantage – Towards the ends of months/quaters if the provider is under target & you can sign by the end of the month you can often negotiate a better deal by promising to sign by x date if they can drop the price.