The benefit of getting a Leased Line Service

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Getting a Leased Line service can seem like a big jump up from your standard ADSL or broadband, especially when it comes to price. We often speak to IT managers and business owners who don’t fully understand the benefits of leased line service and the impact it can have on your business.  To help we thought we would list a few of the main benefits for you.

Leased line service Benefits

1. The SLA ( service level agreement) 

This means that your uncontended leased line service will work for a percentage of time, guaranteed. There isn’t any downtime and no buffering at peak times because you’re the only user on the line. Should your line ever fall below that level you could be entitled to compensation from your ISP.

If a provider has a high service level agreement it can give you an indication of how good the service will be. 99.99% is the best percentage you can get, although some provider will say they can guarantee a 100% SLA. This a fabrication as they can only aim for 100% but cannot guarantee it.

An SLA can also come with other terms such as fix time guarantee, and so on. Each provider will have a slightly different SLA, so make sure you compare them and find one that fits your companies needs.

2. It’s uncontended 

Uncontended means that you don’t share the line with any other users in the area, unlike broadband connections. Having a dedicated line is a huge benefit for many businesses, but especially those that have to upload vast amounts of data as it means that you get what you pay for in upload speeds and download speeds.

The alternative is getting an uncontended service, granted it is much cheaper but you do compromise on the service itself compared with a leased line service, often this will mean you incur downtime. The cost of downtime can have a huge impact on businesses of all sizes, but especially larger corporations.

The contention ratio of a broadband line is around 50/1 in most cases, this means that you share that line with 50 other people in your area. At peak times your line will run extremely slow and may even cut out, which could be detrimental for your business.

3. Pro-active monitoring

All reputable ISP’s that provide leased line services will proactively monitor the network 24/7, ensuring that most problems are fixed before they even occur, giving you better peace of mind and more reliable internet connection. They will often have a fix time with a maximum of around 6 hours.

Business broadband will usually not come with these kinds of added extras, so it gives customers who need the dedicated bandwidth of a leased line a real competitive edge. The fix time for most broadband services can be up to 2 weeks, which can leave a business without internet meaning this will dramatically affect their day-to-day workings, losing them time and money.

4. Scalability

Another key benefit for many growing businesses is that you can upgrade the bandwidth amount, for example, if you take a 10Mb leased line service over 100Mb bearer, you can upgrade your speed when needed (up to 100mb). With the amount of extra bandwidth we are using in day to day life, it is also going to be growing on a business level and a lot of businesses will not be able to operate on standard broadband.

It was only about 5 years ago at Leased Line Comparison that 10Mb was our most requested bandwidth for leased line quotes, however now its 100Mb and over, that’s a 10 x increase in just 6 years.

With businesses growing more and more each year, having a scalable line is a must. With broadband, you can’t really increase speed unless you take out a completely new contract, which could be a lengthy and tedious task for any business.

5. Reliability

As mentioned above, Leased lines are uncontended with no other users on the line apart from yourself, meaning the risk of losing bandwidth is non-existant. Leased lines are known to be one of the most reliable internet connections you can get, hence the growing need for them within internet-dependent businesses.

Reliability on broadband connections, compared to Leased lines, is appalling. You often hear of businesses not being able to function due to slow speeds and consistent dropping out, this can all be avoided with a dedicated, reliable connection, such as an internet Leased line.

Leased Line Service Disadvantages

1.Cost 

The cost of a leased line has dropped dramatically in recent years, but they are still more expensive than your traditional internet access like an ADSL connection. They start from around £150 per month for the lower bandwidths, but when you consider the benefits, the cost is completely worth it.

You can also check if your eligible for the government voucher scheme to help towards the install of a leased line, which can help reduce the cost. The Government voucher scheme was introduced to encourage business to implement full fibre connections into their premises. With this scheme, you can get up to £2.5k grant towards the cost of a Leased line. There are a few requirements you’d need to meet first, such as being a UK based business and taking out a contract of 100MB or over.

So, if you’re looking into a Leased line and would like to get the cheapest quote possible, then do not hesitate to run a comparison with us. All you need to do is fill in one of our Leased Line Comparison forms, wait for one of our helpful advisors to call you to go over the requirements, and then you’ll receive your free and impartial quotes the same day.

2. Install Time

With a leased line you are getting a private, dedicated connection so it does take longer than plugging in a new router to your phone line. The average time for leased line installs is anywhere between 40-90 days depending on the provider and a few other factors like time of year.