Both a leased line and business broadband get your office online, but they’re built very differently — and they’re priced very differently too. Here’s how to decide.
The short answer
- Choose business broadband (full fibre or SoGEA) if you’re a small team that mostly uses email, cloud apps and video calls, and a few hours offline in a rare fault would be annoying rather than costly.
- Choose a leased line if your business stops when the internet stops, you upload a lot of data, you have many people on video calls at once, or you need a guaranteed speed.
What’s the difference?
Broadband is shared
With broadband, the connection from the street cabinet or fibre splitter back to the network is shared with your neighbours. Speeds are “up to” a figure and can dip at busy times. Upload speeds are usually much lower than download speeds.
A leased line is yours
A leased line is a dedicated fibre from your building to the network. Nobody else uses it, so you get the speed you pay for all day — and the same speed up as down (that’s what “symmetrical” means).
Side by side
- Speed: broadband is “up to”; a leased line is guaranteed, from 10Mbps to 1Gbps and beyond.
- Upload: broadband uploads are a fraction of the download; a leased line is the same both ways.
- Fix time: broadband faults are fixed on a best-efforts basis, often within a day or two; leased lines come with a fix target measured in hours.
- Installation: broadband is usually live within a couple of weeks; a leased line needs a survey and takes longer.
- Price: business broadband starts from tens of pounds a month; a leased line costs several hundred.
Can I have both?
Yes, and many businesses do: a leased line for the main connection, with broadband as an automatic backup. If one fails, the other takes over.
How to decide
- Check what broadband reaches you with our broadband checker.
- Get live leased line prices for your address on our leased lines page — it takes about 30 seconds.
- Compare the two against what an hour offline would cost your business.
Frequently asked questions
Is a leased line faster than full fibre?
Not always on paper — full fibre can offer very high download speeds. But a leased line guarantees its speed in both directions and isn’t shared, so it’s more consistent.
How long does a leased line take to install?
It depends on the site and whether fibre is already in the building. A survey comes first, and installation is typically a few weeks to a few months.
Do leased lines need a phone line?
No. Like full fibre and SoGEA, a leased line doesn’t use the old phone network.
Want a hand with this?
Talk to a real person at Exeltel — we’ll look at your current set-up and recommend what fits, with a clear price.
Want a hand with this?
Talk to a real person at Exeltel — we’ll look at your current set-up and recommend what fits, with a clear price.