Leased line vs full fibre —which is right for your business?
Full fibre (FTTP) and leased lines are both fibre-optic business connectivity, but they're fundamentally different products with different uses, different costs and different SLAs. For most UK SMEs, FTTP is the right answer. For specific operational situations, a leased line is genuinely the better fit. Here's the honest comparison.
What we hear every week.
The frustrations behind why businesses search for leased line vs full fibre in the first place. If any of these feel familiar, the fix is straightforward.
"Our supplier is pushing us to upgrade to a leased line but we don't know if we need one."
Leased lines are higher-margin products for telecoms providers. Some genuinely fit specific operations; many businesses get sold a leased line when high-tier FTTP would deliver the same operational outcome at lower cost. The honest answer depends on your specific downtime cost, bandwidth needs, contract economics, and whether your operations actually need dedicated infrastructure.
"Is a leased line really 10x more expensive than FTTP?"
Often yes. Business FTTP at 1Gbps typically £75-200/month. Leased line at 100-200Mbps typically £400-1,000+/month. The price difference reflects: dedicated bandwidth (not shared with other customers), business-grade SLA with response and restoration times in contract, symmetric speeds, and dedicated install (separate fibre run from carrier to premises).
"Both are fibre — what's actually different?"
FTTP is shared infrastructure — your fibre joins others at the local aggregation point. Leased line is dedicated infrastructure — your fibre is yours alone from carrier exchange to your premises. The shared vs dedicated difference manifests in contention (peak-time throughput), SLA (response when broken), and contract economics.
"Our business is growing — do we need a leased line for future-proofing?"
Possibly, but FTTP also scales. Many UK businesses are on FTTP packages that can be upgraded to higher tiers (500Mbps → 1Gbps → 2Gbps) at the same address without civil works. The future-proofing argument for leased lines is real for specific operations but often oversold for general SME growth.
The actual differences between leased lines and full fibre.
**Contention.** FTTP is shared infrastructure. Your fibre joins others at the local Openreach (or CityFibre, etc.) exchange. Most of the time this is fine — modern fibre infrastructure isn't usually contended to the point where business users notice. Occasionally at peak times, shared infrastructure means peak-time degradation. **Leased lines are uncontended** — dedicated bandwidth from carrier exchange to your premises. No sharing, no peak-time variation, no surprises. **SLA.** FTTP has business-tier SLAs but they're consumer-derived — typical response times around 2-4 working hours, restoration target 24-48 working hours for major faults. **Leased lines have proper business SLAs** — typical response 1-2 hours, restoration 4-8 hours, often with financial penalties to the carrier if SLA is missed. **Speed and symmetry.** FTTP is usually asymmetric (e.g. 900Mbps down, 115Mbps up). Some CityFibre tiers are symmetric. **Leased lines are always symmetric** — 100Mbps means 100Mbps down AND 100Mbps up, which matters for cloud backups, video, hosted applications. **Install timeline.** FTTP typically 7-14 working days where infrastructure exists. **Leased lines typically 21-45 working days** due to dedicated Openreach civil works (or other carrier civils). **Cost.** FTTP at 1Gbps: £75-200/month. Leased line at 100-200Mbps: £400-1,000+/month. Leased lines cost more because the infrastructure is dedicated and the SLA is genuine.
The Telexico approach to leased line vs full fibre.
Six things our customers consistently tell us matter.
FTTP fits most UK SMEs
Office under 50 users, restaurant, retail, healthcare practice, professional services firm — business FTTP delivers gigabit speeds, business-grade support, competitive pricing. The right answer for the vast majority of UK SMEs we work with.
Leased lines fit specific operations
Manufacturing during production hours, healthcare during clinical hours, financial services with regulatory uptime requirements, multi-site retail where central EPOS continuity matters, large-bandwidth operations needing guaranteed throughput. Specific operational profile justifies the cost.
Install timing often matters
FTTP installs in 7-14 days where infrastructure exists. Leased lines take 21-45 days due to dedicated civil works. If timing is critical, this often pushes the decision toward FTTP (or Starlink for genuinely urgent rapid-deploy needs).
Best-of-both is sometimes the answer
Some businesses run FTTP primary + leased-line failover, or leased-line primary + FTTP/Starlink failover. The combination delivers business-grade SLA on primary with diverse-path resilience on backup.
Honest assessment over upsell
Telexico assesses your specific operations, downtime cost, bandwidth needs and growth path — then recommends the right product. Sometimes that's high-tier FTTP plus failover; sometimes a leased line is genuinely the right answer; sometimes a leased line with FTTP backup is the best fit. We don't default to the higher-margin product.
Managed install for either product
Telexico handles ordering, install coordination, configuration, integration with phones/WiFi/AI, and ongoing UK support — same Telexico relationship whichever underlying product fits your operation.
When each product is genuinely the right answer.
**Full fibre (FTTP) is the right answer for** office-based businesses with reasonable downtime tolerance, restaurants and hospitality (where 4G/5G failover handles the brief outages adequately), retail with moderate transaction volumes, professional services firms, most healthcare practices, growing SMEs that need bandwidth but not absolute uptime guarantees. **Leased lines are genuinely the right answer for** manufacturing operations where production downtime cost is high, healthcare practices during clinical hours where compliance and patient safety matter, financial services with regulatory uptime requirements, multi-site retail where central EPOS continuity protects every store's payment processing, businesses with very large symmetric bandwidth requirements (video production, cloud workflows), data-heavy operations that need uncontended throughput, and operations where SLA-backed restoration matters more than capital cost. **Both make sense for** operations where primary should be business-grade leased line with FTTP or Starlink as diverse-path failover, or where primary is high-tier FTTP with leased-line backup providing SLA-backed restoration during major outages.
How it works for businesses like yours.
Three real-world setups we deliver across the UK.
Mid-size office (20-50 users) — FTTP wins
Business FTTP 1Gbps via Openreach or CityFibre, £100-200/month, gigabit speeds, business SLA. Right answer for most professional services firms, agencies, consultancies, mid-size offices. Leased line would cost 3-5x more for similar real-world operational outcome.
Manufacturing site — leased line genuinely fits
Production VLAN, ERP system, supplier coordination, EDI exchanges, real-time monitoring — operations where uncontended bandwidth and SLA-backed restoration justify the cost. Leased line 200Mbps symmetric + 4G/Starlink failover. £600-1,200/month total. Justified by actual production downtime cost.
Multi-site dental group — leased line + FTTP failover
Practice management system, compliance call recording, telehealth, multi-surgery clinical operations during clinical hours. Leased line primary with SLA-backed restoration; FTTP secondary as failover. Cost justified by clinical safety and patient experience requirements.
Why UK businesses trust Telexico for the right connectivity decision
Wolverhampton-headquartered managed infrastructure provider. We deploy both FTTP (Openreach, CityFibre, Virgin Media Business and alternative networks) and leased lines (Openreach, CityFibre, BT Wholesale, Virgin Media Business, Colt, TalkTalk Business and other carriers). Because we sell both, we have no margin incentive to push either — the recommendation matches your operational reality. Free audit assesses your specific downtime cost, bandwidth needs, contract economics and growth path. We tell you when high-tier FTTP fits, when a leased line is genuinely needed, when a combination makes sense, and when staying with your current provider after renegotiation is the honest answer.
What you actually get from Telexico.
Honest about scope. No aggressive sales tactics, no surprise renewal jumps, no tier-1 call-centre triage. Real UK engineers, transparent pricing, one provider relationship across the stack.
UK-based provider
Wolverhampton-headquartered. Engineers cover the West Midlands daily; UK-wide install via our partner network. Real UK engineer support, UK data residency, UK contractual relationship — not US-routed SaaS.
Real engineer support
When you call Telexico, you reach someone who can actually fix things. Response SLA backed by real engineering capacity rather than call-centre headcount. Named account manager for ongoing customers.
Free infrastructure review
Every engagement starts with a no-obligation audit of your current setup. Honest recommendation — sometimes that's "stay with your current provider after negotiation." We'd rather be honest than oversell.
Transparent pricing
What you sign for is what you pay — including renewal. No teaser pricing that jumps 30-100% at year two. No mid-contract CPI shock. Predictable multi-year cost from day one.
One provider, one platform
Broadband, hosted VoIP, business WiFi, AI Receptionist, 4G/5G failover, CCTV consolidated onto one Telexico relationship. Single bill, single support number, single engineer when something needs attention.
Migration project-managed
Switching to Telexico isn't DIY. We handle contract audit, notice timing, ordering, parallel running, cutover, old-provider close-out. Customer-visible disruption typically measured in minutes.
Tailored around your business.
Tell us what you have now and what's frustrating you. We'll come back with a tailored review of where we can simplify, consolidate or improve it — no fixed-package pressure, no hard sell.
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Free infrastructure review
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Frequently asked questions
Which is faster — leased line or full fibre?
Depends on the tier. Full fibre headline speeds can be higher (1-2Gbps, up to 5.5Gbps on newer CityFibre XGS-PON deployments). Leased lines are typically sold at 100Mbps-10Gbps. The actual operational difference is contention (FTTP is shared, leased line is dedicated) and symmetry (leased line is always symmetric; FTTP often asymmetric).
Is a leased line worth the extra cost?
Sometimes — depends entirely on your operations. For most SMEs, no — high-tier FTTP plus proper failover delivers similar operational outcome at much lower cost. For specific operations (manufacturing during production, healthcare during clinical hours, financial services with regulatory uptime, multi-site retail with central EPOS) yes — the SLA difference and contention difference matter. Free audit identifies which category you're in.
How much does a leased line cost in the UK?
Indicative: 100Mbps symmetric leased line £400-700/month. 200Mbps £600-1,000. 500Mbps £900-1,500. 1Gbps £1,200-2,500+. Plus initial install cost of £500-3,000 depending on civil works required. Significantly more than equivalent-tier FTTP, but the difference funds genuinely dedicated infrastructure and proper business SLA.
Why does a leased line take 4-6 weeks to install?
Dedicated infrastructure means dedicated civil works. Openreach (or the carrier) typically needs to dig a fibre run from their nearest exchange to your premises, get street works permits, complete the build, then commission the circuit. The civil-works element is what takes weeks. FTTP uses existing shared infrastructure so it's faster.
Can I run hosted VoIP over a leased line?
Yes — leased lines are ideal for hosted VoIP because they're symmetric (matching upload and download), uncontended (consistent throughput), and have low latency. The voice QoS in your managed router prioritises VoIP traffic over the leased line, ensuring call quality even under load.
Should I have both — leased line primary and FTTP backup?
Common for operations where SLA-backed primary matters but cost-effective backup is appropriate. Leased line provides business-grade primary connectivity with proper restoration SLA; FTTP (on a different physical network where possible) provides diverse-path failover at lower cost than a second leased line. Managed dual-WAN router handles automatic switchover.
Will the PSTN switch-off affect leased lines and FTTP differently?
No — both are all-IP connectivity products and aren't affected by the PSTN switch-off (January 2027 for ISDN and analogue copper). The switch-off affects businesses still on copper-delivered services. Migration from copper PSTN to FTTP (or leased line) plus hosted VoIP is the standard path; Telexico handles the migration end-to-end.
Apply this to your business?
Reading the guide is one thing; applying it to your specific operation is another. Send us your current setup — we'll review what you have, what fits, and where to start. No hard sell, no fixed-package pressure.