Fibre Broadband versus Fibre Leased Lines

With fibre-optic broadband connectivity becoming increasingly more common around the UK, you may be considering taking advantage of the superfast speeds and other benefits that Fibre cables can offer. For businesses looking at Fibre options, the main two to consider are Fibre broadband and Fibre leased lines. We look at the differences.

Fibre broadband can either be deployed as Fibre-to-the-Cabinet or Fibre-to-the-Premises. For businesses, it is more likely to be the latter, which links your premises directly to a local exchange. Fibre leased lines give you a dedicated connection to the local exchange, which means the connection is not shared with any other users, unlike broadband.

Therefore, your connection won’t become slower at peak times – it is solely for your use. Furthermore, leased lines are symmetrical whereas broadband is asymmetrical. This refers to the download speeds and upload speeds – symmetrical leased lines offer the same upload speed as download speed, but asymmetrical broadband will have slower uploads than downloads. This is something to consider for businesses hosting and uploading large amounts of data on a regular basis.

Comparing broadband speeds

When it comes to speed, broadband cannot match leased lines, even fibre to the premises (FTTP) is significantly slower than leased lines. Fibre broadband is the fastest broadband solution out there, offering speeds of up to 100Mb. But Fibre leased lines can offer 1Gb, even 10Gb in some offerings. Both speeds are affected by the distance from the exchange: the further you are away from the exchange, the slower your connection.

With Fibre leased lines, 10Gb is capable to those within 35km of an exchange, but it drops the further you are away. This is similar to broadband: those within 500m of an exchange will experience the 100Mb advertised, but those in remote areas might not see such as significant improvement.

You may be wondering that the speed of Fibre leased lines must come at a cost: and you would be right. Leased lines are rented annually, and you would be expected to pay a monthly fee of several hundred pounds for the service. Fibre broadband is a much cheaper alternative, monthly fees will be more like tens of pounds.

If you are considering leased lines and have an ISDN30 connection, you may be able to save some money. Fibre leased lines utilise SIP trunks, which are virtual telephone lines delivered over a leased line connection. This means that you can get rid of ISDN30 channels and deliver calls over the SIP trunk, saving a significant amount of money in telephone line rental.

With Fibre leased lines being more expensive, the main thing to consider is just how mission-critical Internet is to your business. Businesses and organisations that place paramount importance on their internet connection will pay the premium for Fibre leased lines, as the unmatched download and upload capabilities and reliability of the service can make it a cost-effective solution in the long run.

Fibre broadband still earns its moniker of ‘superfast’ and has a number of benefits, and is a great broadband option for businesses that do need superfast download and upload capabilities and a reliable connection. In the end, it is up to the user to weigh up which connection suits them best.

Advantages of Leased Lines

Broadband and leased lines have a few key notable differences. We have already covered maximum speeds available for each internet service. But some other advantages of having a dedicated line include :

• Symmetric upload and download speed – Not only do leased lines come with increased download and upload speed, but they are also symmetrical both ways. This can be a real advantage for businesses who have to upload files to the cloud or send information via e-mail.
• Service Level Agreement – The service level agreement you get with a dedicated line means your line is guaranteed not to go down & if it does you earn money off your next bill. Internet access is available at all times. There will also be guarantees around fix times, usually 4-6 hours.
• Fast & reliable – As well as the connection speeds being better with dedicated fibre optic cabling like leased lines you also get unlimited data & a better level of customer support from the provider.

If your business is ready to upgrade the best way to save money on your fibre connectivity is to compare providers. We would love to help so simply fill out a request above.