How much does a Leased Line Cost April 2024?

Leased Line costs have fallen dramatically in the past decade. As more providers try to gain market share, their prices continue to drop. This is great for anyone buying a fibre ethernet leased line but it can still be confusing as the prices vary so much. You may get a quote for 1Gb leased line for £200 per month from one provider & another quote of £600 per month for the same service at the same location.

Business Leased Lines continue to grow in popularity with the biggest increase in use now seen with small businesses. This has been aided by the governments’ gigabit voucher scheme which is helping make dedicated leased lines cost less & allowing small business operations to future proof & perform optimally at peak times. They also come with a wide range of contract terms and industry-leading SLA’s.

Full Fibre Leased Lines start at £150 per month. The price you get offered depends on a number of factors:

• Your Location – This is the main caveat for how much you will get offered. Inner City London Leased lines are cheap and will likely get the lowest costs. Rural locations with limited providers and no fibre are likely to be higher.
• The bandwidth you require – Unless there is a special deal on the general rule is the higher the speed needed the higher the cost will be for your leased line.
• What providers you are quoted by – This is also why it pays to do a comparison. TalkTalk Leased lines may have a special offer making them cheaper than BT leased lines which can dramatically reduce the cost.

When you get to the higher bandwidth brackets prices can go up to £1000’s, again depending on where you are based. No one can give you a price without knowing your details so the best way you can find out is to run a leased line comparison. The prices of this base on your postcode & bandwidth ensuring you get accurate figures.

It’s worth thinking about contract length too – If you go for a 5 year instead of 3 its likely to save you some more money.

So, Why do business leased line costs vary so much?

Well in the UK there are a few main providers who own all the fibre core networks- These are BT, Virgin media business, TalkTalk, Colt & SSE. All other leased line providers effectively resell that fibre & manage the leased line connection.

Most leased line providers will sell customers a fully managed leased line which means you would get dedicated internet access that is secure & private complete with a managed router.

This will also come with guaranteed service levels and fix time. However, they can also sell wires only if you had the staff & capability of running the line & monitoring the network yourself.

The biggest & best known provider is BT & when it comes to getting a quote BT leased line costs can often be higher than others selling BT. BT business & Virgin media are the owners of most of the fibre in the UK & both have the ability to go very low on quotes if they really want to win the business.

However, both are giants in telecoms & not short of customers already so they tend to keep margins high, which is another reason it pays to do a comparison to guarantee you get the lowest leased line cost.

How can I save money on business leased line costs?

Now you know why business leased line costs vary we can launch into our highly anticipated tips for saving some money!

• Do a business leased line cost comparison –When getting a fibre optic internet connection, as with your home internet it can pay to compare the market. However, with leased lines you type in leased line comparison to google & plenty of companies will come up – So, who do you use?

There are only two we are aware of who genuinely compare different providers. Many just compare the price they get themselves for reselling one of the main suppliers. Those two companies are us & compare your business costs. The easy way to know is asking the comparison company if you would be signing with them or have the option of signing with different providers – not just using a different carrier network.

• Know the speed & bearer you need – Unlike broadband connections your leased line will give you symmetrical upload speeds & download speeds. Because it is only dedicated to you you are likely to need less speed on a leased line that you would on your broadband connection.

The most common leased line speed is 100Mb which is a great example for this point. 100Mb is a speed you can get on 100Mb bearer or a 1Gb bearer, which is just the pipe its delivered to you on. If you purchased 100Mb on 100Mb bearer its likely to be cheaper than 100Mb on a 1Gb bearer. The only reason you would need it on 1Gb bearer is if you had plans to grow or need more before the end of your contract.

• Take advantage of economies of scale – The more you buy the lower the cost & all leased line providers will sell other services or products. So if you have telephone systems, business cloud applications, backup lines etc chat to the provider to see what they could offer if you bought them all in with the leased line.
• Don’t be put off by previous ECC’s – Excess construction charges can occur when there would be a cost to install the leased line. This is always only ever known after you order & do the site survey, usually its for things like needing to physically dig up the road to lay fibre etc.

In most major cities its unlikely there would be ECC’s. However, if you have been quoted a few years ago & there was high ECC’s there could now be fibre in your area or you could find a provider who would be able to absorb them or considerably reduce them.

• Use the crowded market to your advantage – There are hundreds of leased line providers in the UK & all of them sell the same product. Most will have similar service level agreements in place & fix times so if you run a comparison for your leased line cost then you can use the quotes to try & bring down the prices or get the providers to offer you additional services or upgraded equipment for free.

Why should I use leased line comparison?

The ultimate best tip to save money on your leased line costs is to use us to do a comparison. We compare some of the UK’s best leased line providers & are the UK’s number 1 leased line comparison site. Over the past 10 years we have been working with these providers & because of the amount of business we have secured them get better discounts that going direct – which we pass directly back to you.

Our comparison is completely free, impartial & in total might take 5 mins of your time & save you hundreds if not thousands off your leased line costs so its a win-win for all involved.