Investing in a dedicated leased line is a significant decision for any UK business, and shows a commitment to robust, high-performance connectivity for your business. However, with numerous providers and a wealth of technical jargon, navigating the options can feel daunting.
The key to securing the right leased line – one that truly meets your business’s needs without unexpected surprises – lies in asking the right questions.
Our guide is your essential buyer’s checklist, designed to equip you with the critical questions to ask any prospective leased line provider.
We think that by being prepared, you’ll ensure transparency, avoid potential pitfalls, and ultimately make an informed decision that safeguards your business’s digital future.
Understanding the Fundamentals: What is a Leased Line?
Before diving into the questions, a quick recap: a leased line is a private, uncontended, symmetrical fibre optic connection between your business premises and the provider’s network. With a leased line, your bandwidth is guaranteed, providing consistent upload and download speeds and an unmatched level of reliability (often backed by stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs)).
The Essential Questions to Ask Your Leased Line Provider:
1. What are the True Speeds and Bearer Capacity?
- “What symmetrical speeds (upload and download) are you quoting, and what is the bearer capacity?”
- Why it’s crucial: Some providers might quote a ‘100Mbps leased line on a 1Gbps bearer’. This means you currently pay for 100Mbps, but the physical fibre (the ‘bearer’) can support up to 1Gbps, allowing for easy, cost-effective upgrades in the future without new installation, so always ensure the advertised speed is symmetrical (same for upload and download).
- Red flag: Asymmetrical speeds or a lack of clarity on bearer capacity.
2. What are the Service Level Agreements (SLAs)?
- “What is your guaranteed uptime percentage (such as: 99.9% or 99.99%)?”
- Why it’s crucial: This is the cornerstone of a leased line’s value. It guarantees how much time your connection will be operational. Higher percentages mean more reliable service.
- “What are your guaranteed fix times for outages (such as a 4-hour fix)?”
- Why it’s crucial: How quickly will they get you back online if there’s an issue?
- “What are your latency guarantees?”
- Why it’s crucial: Low latency is vital for VoIP, video conferencing, and cloud applications. A good provider will guarantee low latency figures (think around <20ms within the UK).
- “What compensation or remedies are in place if SLAs are breached?”
- Why it’s crucial: Understand the financial implications for the provider if they fail to meet their promises, as this demonstrates their commitment to their guarantees.
3. What is the Installation Process and Timeline?
- “What is the estimated installation lead time from order to go-live?”
- Why it’s crucial: Leased line installations typically take 60-90 working days but can extend to 120+ days for complex builds or rural locations so factor this into your planning.
- “Are there any Excess Construction Charges (ECCs) that might apply, and how will these be communicated?”
- Why it’s crucial: ECCs are additional costs if significant civil engineering work (think digging up roads, complex routing) is required.
- “What is involved in the site survey, and what access will you need to my premises?”
- Why it’s crucial: Understand their process for assessing feasibility and planning the installation.
- “Will I need to obtain wayleaves, and how will you support me with this?”
- Why it’s crucial: If the fibre crosses land not owned by your business, a legal agreement (wayleave) is needed and providers should guide you through this, or even manage it for you.
4. What are the Costs, Contract Terms, and Funding Options?
- “What is the total monthly rental cost, and are there any hidden fees or price increases during the contract?”
- Why it’s crucial: Ensure clarity on the overall cost. Ask about mid-contract price rises (some providers guarantee no increases, others don’t).
- “What are the initial installation costs, and are there any options to waive or reduce them?”
- Why it’s crucial: Installation costs can vary. Some providers waive them for longer contracts (such as 3 or 5 years).
- “What is the minimum contract term, and what are the early termination fees?”
- Why it’s crucial: Most leased lines have 1, 3, or 5-year contracts. Longer terms typically result in lower monthly costs but higher termination fees.
- “Am I eligible for the UK Government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme, and how can you help me apply?”
- Why it’s crucial: For eligible rural or hard-to-reach areas, this scheme can provide up to £4,500 towards installation costs, and a good provider will be registered for the scheme and guide you through the application.
5. What is the Support Structure and Customer Service?
- “What are your support hours (e.g., 24/7/365) and how do I contact support (phone, email, online portal)?”
- Why it’s crucial: When your business is down, you need immediate help. Ensure their support aligns with your operational hours.
- “What is your typical response time for support queries?”
- Why it’s crucial: Beyond fix times, how quickly do they acknowledge and begin to troubleshoot an issue?
- “Do you offer a dedicated account manager?”
- Why it’s crucial: For larger businesses, a single point of contact can streamline communication and issue resolution.
- “Do you provide a managed router/firewall service?”
- Why it’s crucial: This offloads the technical responsibility of managing the router and its security from your internal IT team!
6. What About Resilience and Additional Services?
- “Do you offer backup or failover options for my leased line?”
- Why it’s crucial: For ultimate business continuity, consider a secondary connection (like a diverse leased line, Fibre to the Premises (FTTP), or 4G/5G failover) to automatically switch to if your primary line goes down.
- “Can you provide static IP addresses, and how many are included?”
- Why it’s crucial: Static IPs are usually standard with leased lines and are essential for hosting servers, VPNs, and other specific applications.
- “Do you offer other services like VoIP, hosted telephony, or managed cyber security?”
- Why it’s crucial: Bundling services with a single provider can sometimes simplify billing and support.
Navigating the UK Leased Line Market: Providers and Indicative Pricing
The UK leased line market is competitive, with major national carriers and numerous smaller, specialised providers and pricing is highly location-dependent, influenced by the distance from the fibre exchange, the complexity of the build, and chosen contract length.
| Provider | Redundancy options | Dual carrier Support? | From |
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Diverse routing, dual links | Yes | £399 + redundancy |
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Dual-site connectivity | Yes | £400 + |
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Separate routes, SD-WAN | Yes | £450 + |
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Active-passive options | Limited | £300 + |
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Multi-site and resilient WAN | Yes | £375 + |
