When a video call freezes while someone uploads a massive design file, ordinary business broadband suddenly looks rather ordinary. This leased line review cuts through the sales patter: what dedicated internet actually delivers, what it costs, and when paying more is the sensible move rather than a flashy one.
A leased line is not simply “very fast broadband”. It is a dedicated, uncontended connection between your premises and the provider’s network. The capacity is reserved for your business, rather than shared with neighbours, nearby firms or the whole industrial estate at 5pm on a Friday.
Leased line review: what you are buying
Most UK leased lines are delivered as Ethernet circuits, often called Ethernet Access Direct or EAD. Your business gets a fixed amount of bandwidth, such as 100 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps or more. Unlike many broadband services, upload and download speeds are usually symmetrical. A 500 Mbps leased line gives you 500 Mbps both ways.
That matters more than many businesses realise. Cloud backups, large file transfers, hosted phone systems, remote desktop sessions and video meetings all rely heavily on upload capacity. A team can be perfectly happy browsing on a consumer-style connection, then hit a wall the moment several people need to send data at once.
The other thing you are paying for is accountability. A proper leased line normally comes with a service level agreement, a defined fault response target and proactive monitoring. If the circuit develops a problem, it is treated as a business service fault, not a ticket disappearing into the great support queue.
That does not mean a leased line can never fail. Poles get damaged, ducts flood and network equipment occasionally has a bad day. The difference is the design, the support commitment and the route to resolution.
Leased line versus business broadband
Business broadband has improved enormously, especially where full fibre is available. For a small office with cloud software, card payments and a handful of staff, it can be all that is needed. A leased line becomes compelling when downtime costs real money, performance must stay predictable, or your broadband’s upload speed is becoming the bottleneck.
| Feature | Leased line | Business full fibre broadband | |—|—|—| | Bandwidth | Dedicated and uncontended | Shared capacity, even where speeds are excellent | | Speeds | Usually symmetrical | May be symmetrical on FTTP, but varies by product | | Performance | Predictable, with committed capacity | Can vary with network conditions and local usage | | Support | Business SLA and fault targets | Support level depends on the package | | Installation | Survey-led and often longer | Usually faster where service already exists | | Price | Higher monthly cost | Lower monthly cost |
The key trade-off is simple. Business broadband gives you more speed per pound. A leased line gives you more certainty per pound.
For many firms, the best answer is not choosing one or the other in isolation. It is using a leased line as the primary connection and a separate full fibre or 5G service as failover. If the primary circuit has a rare outage, traffic can switch to the backup. That is a far more serious continuity plan than telling staff to tether to their phones and hope for the best.
Speed is only half the story
It is easy to be seduced by a big gigabit number. Before selecting bandwidth, look at how your business actually works.
A ten-person accountancy practice mostly using web apps may be fine on 100 Mbps. A creative studio moving raw footage, a software team pushing builds, or a multi-site firm routing cloud traffic through head office may need 500 Mbps or 1 Gbps. VoIP calls use comparatively little bandwidth, but they are sensitive to latency, jitter and packet loss. A connection that feels quick for downloads can still make calls sound dreadful if its quality is inconsistent.
Ask your provider about the committed information rate, not just the headline bearer. On a leased line these are commonly the same, but clarity is worth having. Also ask whether the quote includes a managed router, firewall options, a block of static IP addresses and monitoring. Comparing one bare circuit with another supplier’s fully managed service is a neat way to create a false bargain.
Latency deserves a sensible view. A leased line cannot make a server in another continent physically closer. What it can do is provide a clean, stable route from your premises into the network. For cloud applications, voice and real-time collaboration, consistency often matters as much as the lowest possible ping result.
What a leased line costs in the UK
There is no honest national price for a leased line because the site is part of the product. Two offices a mile apart can receive very different quotes if one is beside fibre infrastructure and the other needs significant civil work.
Monthly charges are driven by the bandwidth you choose, local network availability, the distance to the nearest viable point of presence, contract term and support level. Installation can be included or discounted on a longer contract, but that should never be mistaken for free. The cost is generally recovered through the agreement, and early termination terms still matter.
A quote that looks suspiciously cheap may exclude key items. Check whether it includes:
- installation and any excess construction charges;
- the circuit type and committed bandwidth;
- router supply, management and static IPs;
- the SLA, fault response and fix targets; and
- all contract, cancellation and price-rise terms.
This is where transparent pricing earns its keep. A low opening figure followed by inflation-linked rises, router rental and a surprise construction bill is not a bargain. It is just an expensive surprise wearing a promotional hat.
Installation: the bit no one should gloss over
Leased line installation usually starts with a desktop check, followed by a site survey. Engineers assess the route, building entry point, internal cabling and equipment location. If fibre can be brought in using existing ducts and infrastructure, the process is straightforward. If new works are required, lead times and costs can grow.
Expect the timeline to be measured in weeks rather than days. Straightforward installations may move quickly, while wayleaves, road crossings, landlord permissions or congested ducts can delay delivery. Businesses in managed offices should check the building owner’s rules early. Waiting until installation day to discover that nobody has approved the riser route is a classic own goal.
Do not let the new line become a single point of failure inside the office either. Put network equipment on an uninterruptible power supply, document who can contact support, and test your failover connection before an outage forces the issue.
Questions that separate a good quote from a vague one
A supplier should be able to answer practical questions without reaching for a cloud of jargon. Ask what access technology will serve the site, whether the quoted speed is fully committed, and what happens if the installation survey uncovers extra works.
Ask for the SLA in plain English: how quickly will a fault be acknowledged, what is the target time to restore service, and when does the clock start? Check support hours too. A 24/7 network means little if your team can only report a problem through a form and wait until Monday.
It is also worth asking about resilience. Can the provider offer a second circuit with genuine route diversity, not merely another service using the same duct? Can they provide a managed firewall, 4G or 5G backup, and a router configured for automatic failover? The right setup depends on your risk, not a generic sales bundle.
Is a leased line right for your business?
A leased line is a strong fit if your organisation cannot afford unstable connectivity, relies on cloud systems throughout the day, supports remote staff, runs voice services, or needs dependable upload performance. It is particularly valuable for multi-site businesses where the head office connection carries traffic for several locations.
It may be overkill for a small team with modest internet use and excellent local full fibre availability. In that case, business FTTP with a backup connection can deliver very good performance for less. There is no prize for buying more circuit than you use.
The right decision starts with a clear picture of what an hour offline would cost your business, not with the biggest speed printed on a brochure. Get the site surveyed, read the service terms, and choose the connection that lets your team get on with their work without having to think about the internet at all.