Does Your Business Need A Leased Line?

10 reasons why your business should consider a leased line.

If your business relies on the internet to operate effectively, you need to consider a leased line.

Consider what you use the internet for. You may need it to communicate with staff and customers, process customer transactions, or gain access to your applications and services in the cloud.  Even more, if you have a VOIP phone system you absolutely must have internet access for your telephones to function.

With conventional broadband (ADSL / ADSL2) your internet runs over ageing BT copper wire and as such can be unreliable.  Advances in technology give us FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) and FTTP (Fibre To The Premises) connections and while these are generally faster and more reliable they can still fail, and whenever these services fail we are at the mercy of Openreach as to when they are fixed.

With a leased line, there are service levels that must be adhered to, this along with full fibre optic technology which is used to connect your business to the local POP (point of presence), ensures a faster and more reliable internet connection.
If your business could not function with a day or two of downtime you really need to consider a leased line.

How to know if a leased line is right for your business?
•    You employ lots of people
•    You use cloud business services such as Office 365
•    Your internet connectivity is business-critical
•    You use a VoIP Phone System
•    You transfer large files

What are the benefits of a leased line?

Reliability
A leased line connection is more reliable. The fibre cables run directly into your business providing the internet connection and offer consistently high performance. Without any interference, line contention, other users or busy periods, a leased line service is the only connection that always guarantees a full speed, SLA backed reliable internet connection.

Symmetrical Bandwidth
Standard internet connections always offer lower upload speeds (expressed as 80/20) where the lower number is the upload speed. A Leased Line has symmetrical bandwidth, this means if your connection has a 1Gb per second download speed, it will have the same upload speed. This is crucial for making VoIP calls, backing up data, and transferring large files.

Uncontended Bandwidth
Most internet connections run on something known as a “contended service”, which means the connection is shared between multiple addresses. You could be sharing bandwidth from the cabinet to the exchange with many other businesses or residential customers and as a result, your internet speeds can suffer, especially at peak times. Leased lines have a contention ratio of 1:1 and as there is no one else sharing your connection, your speeds are constantly as expected.

Dedicated Bandwidth
You choose your speeds, and that’s exactly what you’ll get. Your upload and download speeds remain consistent as the leased line connection ensures the same high data throughput. Dedicated bandwidth eliminates slow networks and ensures your speeds always remain the same so you can fully rely on it.

Faster Broadband
Not only are your speeds guaranteed, but with a leased line connection, you can also get a lot higher speeds than you can with other connection types. A fully copper connection has a speed limit of typically 21Mb, FTTC is limited to 80Mb, FTTP can go up to 1000Mb download, but is limited to 330Mb up, so even if you choose high speeds, the cables can only service to a certain level. Dedicated fibre lines can provide speeds up to 10,000Mbps.

Flexibility
Leased lines can be installed with one eye on potential future speed requirements. When a line is ordered is is typically expressed as, for example, 100/1000. This means you are getting a 100Mbps line (upload and download) running on a line that can support up to 1000Mbps (or 1Gb) meaning speeds can easily be increased if business needs dictate.

Lower Latency
Latency is the delay that occurs while processing, transferring, or streaming data. Sometimes described as lag or buffering these issues can impact business productivity and is especially noticeable on VOIP calls. A leased line gives you lower latency meaning you shouldn’t experience these annoying interruptions.

Service Level Agreements
As mentioned above with conventional broadband lines, we are at the mercy of Openreach as and when a fault occurs.  Leased lines offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which ensures if a fault occurs engineers are dispatched a lot faster to resolve the issue.

Backup Options
Leased lines can be ordered with a backup (slower) service in the event of a problem with the leased line connection.  Typically, these lines run on the older technology and are configured to automatically failover in the event of an issue with the primary line. While the business will notice a speed drop in this event, the business will at least still be operational.

Future-Proofing
Investing in a leased line connection future-proofs your business. As more cloud-based services and systems are adopted, the reliance on a faster internet connection grows. Running a business that uses Office 365, cloud-based systems, and a VOIP telephony service on a non-leased line is asking an awful lot of the aging BT copper infrastructure and increases efficiency and productivity risk to your business.