What is a leased line? Plain answer, honest engineering.
A dedicated internet connection between your business and your provider — separate fibre, contractually guaranteed bandwidth, strong SLAs. Different from regular business broadband in five concrete ways. Worth it for some operations, overkill for most UK SMEs.
- 📊 Symmetric bandwidth (up = down)
- 🛡 Contractually guaranteed speeds
- 🔒 Uncontended (private fibre)
- 📋 Strong SLA (99.95% typical)
- ⏱ 30-90 days install typical
- 💷 3-10× FTTP monthly cost
A leased line in plain English.
A leased line is a dedicated internet connection between your business and your provider's network. The word "dedicated" is the whole point: a leased line is private fibre used only by your business, not shared with anyone else.
Three things follow from "dedicated":
- Bandwidth is yours. If you pay for 100Mbps, you actually get 100Mbps — both downstream and upstream, all the time. No "up to" weasel-words.
- Speed is symmetric. Upload speed equals download speed. Critical for video conferencing, cloud uploads, multi-site VoIP, off-site backup.
- SLA is contractual. Typical leased line uptime SLA is 99.95% with 4-hour fix time and financial credits if missed. FTTP is best-effort — providers try, but they don't pay you when it fails.
The trade-off is cost. Leased lines are 3-10× more expensive monthly than equivalent FTTP, and take 30-90 days to install vs 7-14 days for FTTP. For UK SMEs where reliability and speed predictability genuinely matter — financial services, healthcare, multi-site operations, anyone where downtime cost exceeds the monthly premium — the leased line economics work. For most general UK SMEs, FTTP with 4G/5G failover delivers operationally similar reliability at much lower cost.
The physical reality.
The last mile
Dedicated fibre runs from your premises to your provider's network edge. This fibre is physically separate from the shared infrastructure used by FTTP — different strands in different ducts in many cases. The dedicated part is what creates the cost differential, not the technology.
Network Terminating Equipment
The fibre terminates at your premises in an NTE — a small box that hands over to your router. Your provider owns and manages the NTE; you own/manage everything behind your router. The handoff point is where their SLA responsibility ends.
Delivery methods
Modern UK leased lines come as: EAD (Ethernet Access Direct) — pure fibre, strongest SLA, urban availability. EoFTTC — Ethernet over Fibre To The Cabinet, hybrid, mid-range cost. EFM (Ethernet First Mile) — copper-based, legacy, declining. Pure fibre point-to-point — for very large bandwidth needs.
Contention & SLA
The fundamental thing you're buying: bandwidth contractually reserved for you. Whether your usage is 5% or 95% of contracted bandwidth, the network capacity is held for you. Contrast with FTTP where bandwidth is statistically shared and peak-time congestion is normal.
The five scenarios where leased lines make sense.
High-availability operations
Financial services, healthcare, e-commerce — anywhere downtime cost exceeds £500+/hour. Leased line SLAs with financial credits create the right operational + commercial framework.
Heavy upload requirements
Video conferencing teams, large file uploads to cloud, off-site backup, video production. Symmetric bandwidth means uploads don't bottleneck.
VoIP-heavy operations
50+ concurrent calls with consistent quality requirements. Contended FTTP can introduce jitter/latency at peak times; leased line removes that variability.
Multi-site connectivity
Where multiple sites need consistent bandwidth between them. Often used as MPLS or SD-WAN underlay where predictable performance matters.
Contractual bandwidth guarantees
Regulated industries or specific customer contracts requiring dedicated capacity. Leased line is the only product that delivers contractually-guaranteed bandwidth.
When NOT to choose leased line
Typical UK SMEs with 5-50 staff on standard cloud apps + voice. FTTP + 4G/5G failover delivers operationally-similar effective uptime at much lower cost. We'll tell you that honestly.
Review my current setup.
Not ready to switch yet? Send us your current contracts, bills, or photos of your existing equipment. We'll review what you have, what you're paying, and where you could simplify, consolidate or improve — without any pressure to buy anything from us.
We benchmark your existing broadband, phones, mobile and IT against current UK market pricing and what your business actually needs.
Real engineer review of your current connectivity, voice setup, WiFi, security and continuity — strengths, gaps, and where you're overpaying or underprotected.
We tell you honestly what's available at your postcode — FTTP, leased line, alt-net carriers — and which makes commercial sense for your operation.
For businesses still on ISDN or aging on-premises PBX — an honest cost-and-feature comparison before the 2027 BT switch-off forces a rushed decision.
No hard sell. No fixed package pressure. If we're not a better fit, we'll tell you straight — and recommend what is.
Frequently asked questions
What's a leased line, in plain English?
A leased line is a dedicated internet connection between your business and your provider's network. The 'dedicated' part is the key difference from regular broadband: a leased line is a private fibre line used by only your business, not shared with anyone else. The bandwidth you pay for is guaranteed contractually — you actually get the speed quoted, not a shared best-effort. Leased lines are used by UK businesses where reliability and consistent speed matter more than headline cost: financial services, healthcare, multi-site operations, anyone where the cost of downtime exceeds the monthly premium.
How is a leased line different from FTTP / business broadband?
Three big differences. (1) Bandwidth: leased lines are symmetric (e.g. 100Mbps down AND 100Mbps up); FTTP is asymmetric (e.g. 900Mbps down, 100Mbps up). (2) Contention: leased lines are uncontended (your speed is contractually guaranteed); FTTP is contended (multiple businesses share network capacity, peak times can slow). (3) SLA: leased lines have strong SLAs (typically 99.95% uptime, 4-hour fix time, financial credits if missed); FTTP is best-effort. (4) Install: leased lines take 30-90 days typically; FTTP installs in 7-14 days. (5) Cost: leased lines are 3-10x more expensive monthly for similar headline speeds.
When does a leased line actually make sense?
Five scenarios where leased lines genuinely earn their cost. (1) High-availability operations — financial services, healthcare, e-commerce where downtime cost exceeds £500+/hour. (2) Heavy upload requirements — businesses with significant outbound traffic (video conferencing, large file uploads to cloud, off-site backup). (3) VoIP-heavy operations — businesses with 50+ concurrent calls where consistent low-jitter low-latency matters. (4) Multi-site connectivity — where you need consistent bandwidth between sites, often for MPLS or SD-WAN underlay. (5) Contractual bandwidth guarantees — regulated industries or specific customer contracts that require dedicated capacity. For typical UK SMEs (5-50 staff, standard cloud apps, voice on a separate VoIP system), FTTP with 4G/5G failover usually delivers similar operational uptime at much lower cost.
How much does a leased line cost in the UK in 2026?
Typical 2026 UK leased line pricing: 100Mbps symmetric £300-500/month; 200Mbps £400-650/month; 500Mbps £600-1,000/month; 1Gbps £800-1,500/month; 10Gbps £2,000-5,000+/month. These are typical urban-UK rates with standard install distances. Rural sites or sites needing complex civil work (digging, pole work) add significantly. Install costs typically £500-3,000 for standard urban installs, much higher for rural or distance-from-exchange complexity. See the leased line cost UK page for full breakdown.
How long does leased line install take?
Typical UK leased line install: 30-60 working days for urban locations with existing duct infrastructure. 60-120 days for suburban or rural sites needing new infrastructure. The bottleneck is usually civil engineering work — digging, pole installation, fibre splicing — which is paced by Openreach or alt-net infrastructure schedules, not your provider. Telexico can't speed up Openreach civils; we can manage the process and keep you informed. For businesses that need fast install while leased line is being provisioned, we install FTTP + 4G failover as interim connectivity.
Is a leased line worth it for VoIP-heavy operations?
Sometimes. For 5-20 concurrent calls on standard business VoIP, FTTP with proper QoS handles fine. For 50+ concurrent calls, especially with HD video conferencing alongside, leased line removes the jitter/latency risk that contended FTTP can introduce at peak times. For 200+ concurrent calls, leased line becomes operationally necessary, not just nice-to-have. Specific call volume matters more than headline speed: a 100Mbps leased line handles more concurrent voice traffic reliably than a 1Gbps FTTP because the leased line bandwidth is yours, not shared.
What's the alternative to a leased line if I can't justify the cost?
Several real alternatives for UK SMEs where leased line economics don't work. (1) Business FTTP + 4G/5G failover — for most UK SMEs, this delivers leased-line-like effective uptime at lower cost. (2) Dual FTTP (different carriers) + SD-WAN router — bandwidth aggregation + automatic failover. (3) FTTP + Starlink — fast satellite as failover. (4) SIP trunks on a separate connection — protect voice from data spikes. The right answer depends on what you're actually trying to achieve. Reliability concern, not 'I need fast speed'? Failover is usually the right answer, not leased line.
How does a leased line work technically?
A leased line is typically delivered as fibre from your premises to your provider's network edge. The 'last mile' is dedicated fibre — separate physical strands from the shared infrastructure used by FTTP. At your premises, the fibre terminates in an NTE (Network Terminating Equipment) — a small box that your router connects to. Your provider's network handles the routing onward to the public internet. Most modern UK leased lines are EoFTTC (Ethernet over Fibre To The Cabinet) or EAD (Ethernet Access Direct) or pure fibre depending on distance from the exchange. The technical delivery method matters mainly for SLA terms — pure fibre gives the strongest SLAs.
Tailored around your business.
Send us your current setup. We'll review what you have, what you pay, and where we can simplify, consolidate or improve it — no hard sell, no fixed-package pressure.