Benefits Of Leased Lines For Business UK
Find out the Benefits Of Leased Lines For Business, how they bring, and how upgrading to a leased line could transform your business. There is nothing more important than an internet connection at a workplace that is highly internet critical.
Unresponsive websites and long page loading times are the most common issues present when you have a poor internet connection. If you conduct a survey professional across different industries, you will find that internet connectivity is on the top of workplace complaints.
Businesses need a reliable and high-quality internet connection to complete their daily tasks. The good news is that a leased line connection is present there. It is not very common yet, but it is a highly effective alternative to a conventional internet connection for both small and large enterprises.
In this article, we describe what a leased line is, how it is different from conventional broadband and how it can be beneficial for your business.
What is a leased line?
Leased lines have been present in the market since 1970; however, they were not well known to the users till the rise in internet usage in the 1970s. Most businesses are still using conventional broadband connections to fulfil their workplace needs.
But the companies who want to increase their productivity, secure data and depend on a digital connection to reach their target audience are shifting towards leased lines. Now there are several alternatives to a traditional internet connection, and it is essential to explore all the options to find the best one for your business.
A leased line is a dedicated internet connection that provides ultra-fast, symmetrical speed and low latency. It is also known as a private circuit or data line with a fixed bandwidth. There is no change in the availability and speed of leased lines even when demand is high.
Here are some characteristics of leased line:
- A private fibre optic internet connection with a speed up to 10 Gb.
- Highly reliable and secure connection.
- It allows businesses to link numerous properties and places.
- It provides bandwidth control and application filtering.
- Service level agreements for durability and latency.
- Guaranteed speed and availability at peak hours.
Types of Business Grade Leased Lines
There are three main types of leased line connection, including Ethernet First Mile (EFM), Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) and Fibre To the Premises (FTTP). Each of these types is suitable for a specific set of business connection requirements.
1. Ethernet First Mile (EFM)
Ethernet first mile or EFM is a type of internet connection that is provided to your workplace over copper cables. It offers a speed of up to 40Mbps. It is a perfect type of leased line for small businesses. The efficiency and performance of such a connection depend on the distance of your workplace from the location of the internet service provider.
- It is simple and easy to install.
- It provides excellent reliability.
- It comes with symmetrical upload and download speeds.
- It enhances the performance of small businesses.
2. Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC)
FTTC or Fibre to the cabinet is a leased line connection in which half of the connection is made up of fibre optic cables. Internet is supplied to the street cabinet using fibre optic cables. From this cabinet, the internet is provided to your premises over copper cables. It is the best connectivity solution in areas where it is impossible to lay fibre optic cables from a service provider to your workplace.
- It provides Ultra-fast speeds.
- It is excellent for small businesses.
- It offers widespread accessibility.
- Providing a connection using fibre optic.
3. Fibre To The Premises
FTTP or Fiber to the premises provides an internet connection straight to your business premises via fiber optic cables. We can say that it is the best type of leased line for large businesses UK It is the most efficient leased line connection that offers the fastest speed up to 10Gbps. It is an uncontended connection offering the same upload and download speeds. Furthermore, it is highly scalable, and you can upgrade speed anytime according to the demands of your business.
- It is a dedicated connection.
- It provides symmetrical speed.
- You can upgrade seed anytime up to 10 Gbps.
- It improves the performance of large businesses.
Leased Line Vs Broadband
In order to find which is a better connection for your business, a leased line or broadband, you should compare their properties. There are several differences that make leased lines dominant over broadband. First, leased lines offer a synchronous speed in both directions, which means the upload speed is similar to the download speed.
Whereas with a broadband connection, you will receive an upload speed that is slower than the upload speed. Moreover, leased line speed is perfect for cloud-based applications such as VoIP Therefore, it improves the performance of communication services of your business.
A broadband connection is shared with the other users, while a business leased line is solely dedicated to your company and ensures high availability and guaranteed speed. That is why the leased line is preferred over broadband by most businesses.
Benefits Of Leased Lines For Businesses
There are several benefits of leased line for business. You can understand these benefits when you understand how a leased line works. Following are some of the business-oriented benefits of the leased line connection.
1.Ultra-Fast Speed
The speed of your consumer-grade broadband connection is affected by a number of factors, such as the number of users and the type of data you are transferring. The change in speed at peak hours is known as the conflict ratio, and it can impact your business performance more than you think. At peak hours, more people are using your internet connection, and speed slows down.
However, it is not the case with leased lines. It is an uncontended connection providing a bandwidth that is only for you to use. There is now a slow down of speed even at peak hours, and you do not need to worry about how many people are using the internet at the same time.
Likewise, the possible speeds of leased line connections are more significant than a conventional broadband connection. Your network speed depends on how much you want to spend. With a high budget, you can get a speed up to 100Gbps. Therefore a leased line connection ensures an excellent level of bandwidth for critical internet activities of your business.
2. Accessibility And Flexibility
A leased line is a connection between two points that is from your network provider to your workplace. It means that your team members only use it. It makes the leased line more accessible, and you can use it without any disruption.
This is not a shared connection, and even at peak hours, you have a reliable connection to complete your tasks. Many small and large enterprises are arousing leased lines to improve the performance and productivity of their business.
A leased line offers flexibility in terms of that it can be used to transfer data and carry many forms of communication. You can also decide how a bandwidth will be allocated.
3. Highly Secure Network
The leased line offers a high level of security compared to other alternatives of broadband. As a leased line is designed to provide a specific connection for your business, the data connection happens between different locations that you manage.
As you are not transferring data using a public network, it means you have increased security. Therefore, a leased line connection can be great for your business as essential information is kept at a private location.
4. Communication With Team Members & Customers
Whether you own a small or large business, you need to interact with your customers and team members seamlessly. Communication is an essential part of all types of businesses. As a result, for discussions with team members on conference calls, sharing ideas and projects with clients, sending and receiving emails, and for video conferencing, you need an internet connection that provides excellent speed. A leased line can provide you with a reliable connection with the fastest speed.
Only consider that when you have a poor internet connection, it stops you from sending or receiving important emails or stops you from participating in video conferences. For businesses, it is not bearable at all. As a result, they need a high-performance internet connectivity solution like a leased line. Mainly it helps small businesses to boost productivity and growth.
5. Service Level Agreement (SLA)
One of the significant advantages of leased line connection is that it comes with robust service level agreements and minimum uptime. If there is any fault in your connection, it is fixed within the shortest possible time. Most of the service providers continuously monitor the connections they are providing. It helps them in fixing problems in a timely manner.
Furthermore, leased line providers also offer compensation costs if it takes longer to resolve some issues. When you are running a business, time is the most important thing for you, and if you lose your internet connection, even for a short time, it can impact your business performance and productivity. Thus, a leased line connection is perfect for your business as it ensures continuous availability at all times.
6. Enable Remote Working
As a leased line connection offers a reliable connection with ultrafast speed, it helps you connect with your team members who are working remotely. Other than that, flexibility can help you to create a workplace environment to increase the collaboration and performance of your employees.
How Can You Choose A Right leased Line provider?
If you decide to get a leased line connection for your business, your next step is to find the right leased line provider. Here are some things to consider when choosing a leased line provider.
1. Customer Support Service
The standards or level of customer support service you are receiving is one of the crucial factors that you should consider while selecting a network provider. When we talk about customer support, it means the assistance or help that you will receive if your connection is lost or goes down.
However, leased lines are dependable; you should always have a backup plan. Typically, downtime or fallback problems do not occur during office hours. Therefore, it is better to select a provider that provides customer support service round the clock.
2. Price
Before making any final decision, you must shop around, take quotes from different network providers and make price comparisons. This way, you can find a provider offering high-quality services at competitive rates. Although the cheapest cost should not be the only deciding factor for a leased line provider, business owners do not want to spend more than what they require.
3. Leased Line Packages
Most of the leading business leased line providers offer different service packages with different features and speeds. It can include business leased lines for corporate organizations UK, leased lines for large businesses and small businesses. It helps you in choosing a service that meets all your business needs instead of going for one size fits all solutions.
Is A Leased Line Connection Right For Your business?
A leased line is likely to be expensive compared to conventional broadband connections. But it comes with features such as high speed, low latency, symmetrical speed and high quality of services. All these features make it a must-have for your business, especially when most of your business processes depend on internet connection.
It may not be suitable for start-up businesses because the installation process is also complex and expensive. However, for large enterprises, it is worth spending money on getting a leased line connection. It helps you improve collaboration with the team, interaction with clients, and enhance productivity and performance of your business.
Conclusion
Now you have seen that there are a lot of things you need to think about when you want to get a leased line connection. It can also take a relatively long time to install leased lines. However, when your company depends on a Fibre leased line and requires a fast speed, you have to choose a leased line provider that is able to provide a high-speed network and a personalized service.
