Leased Lines FAQs

What is a leased line?

A leased line is a private high-performance circuit. It usually carries voice and data or both. Leased lines are mostly used for either internet access or used privately between two customer sites Point-to-Point (P2P). Unlike some broadband, a leased line is not contended or shared and delivers dedicated guaranteed bandwidth straight to the internet backbone. A leased line provides guaranteed bandwidth, high availability and is the most reliable connectivity option. A leased line is fully managed and monitored 24x7x365 and supported by a strong Service-Level Agreement (SLA) with a guaranteed fix time and a compensation clause.

What are the speeds of a leased line?

From 2Mb up to 1,000Mb (1Gb). 10,000Mb (10Gb) is also available.

What are the other names for a leased line?

Direct Internet Access (DIA), Ethernet, Fibre, EFM (Ethernet First Mile). LAN Extension (LES), WES, Point-to-point (P2P), off-net, on-net, T1 and E1 amongst others.

Ethernet First Mile (EFM)

EFM is delivered over existing copper and is typically half the price of a standard leased line yet provides reliability, high availability and a strong SLA.

What is the difference between copper and fibre?

The difference is that fiber-optics use light pulses to transmit information down fibre lines instead of using electronic pulses to transmit information down copper lines. Today all core networks are based on fibre due to higher speed capacity and greater resistance to electromagnetic noise such as “alien cross talk” from other nearby cabling. In addition, fibre optic cables cost much less to maintain and are a more modern form of data transport. However copper is often used as the last mile to an exchange where fibre is present.

Wires only leased lines

A wires only leased line is a leased line without a router. This can be provided as an option but note that the SLA is reduced to best efforts. A customer may wish to have this if they already have a router that they want to use.

Point-to-point leased lines (P2P)

A P2P leased line is usually provided between two customer sites for the customer to share internal data and/or voice services. This is usually delivered by an Ethernet leased line without routers as the Ethernet plugs into the customer’s switch and LAN.

Internet access leased lines

These are the most common and the most requested by customers as they provide access to the internet.

MPLS leased lines

An MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) is a private leased line which is usually part of a Wide Area Network (WAN) whereby a customer has many sites and wants to connect these sites in the most secure way.

Why buy a leased line over and above a Broadband (ADSL) line?

Although a leased line is more expensive than an ADSL line, a leased line is an uncontended line and is not shared by any other customers. The bandwidth is the same in both directions and offers a high SLA and is fully managed 24x7x365.

What Backup options are available with leased lines?

We can provide an automatic failover Broadband line to a leased line. The Broadband line will use the same IP address range as a leased line and in the unlikely event of a leased line outage the Broadband line is configured to automatically fail over to the Broadband line. If a leased line is purchased with an ADSL Backup line then the SLA increases from 99.9% to 99.99%. Another option is to have two leased lines from two different carriers.

Leased line availability

Leased lines are available from over 5,000 locations (PoPs) throughout the UK.

Who are the leased line carriers that Arrow uses?

Arrow utilises an aggregator network and interconnects into eight best of breed carriers for EFM and Ethernet leased lines. Arrow will select which carrier to use based on location, coverage and price. The carrier will provide the raw circuit and Arrow will provide everything else such as the bandwidth, Juniper router, monitoring, management, SLA and 24x7x365 support. Some of the carriers we use are Colt, BT Wholesale, Virgin, Global Crossing and Talk Talk Business.

What are the leased lines installation lead-times?

Estimated installation lead-times are approx 25 – 35 working days for BT Wholesale EFM & approx 50 working days for Talk Talk Business EFM. Ethernet lines are approx 65 working days.

MPLS VPN (Virtual Private Network) upgrade

All of Arrow’s leased lines can be upgraded to MPLS where a customer has multiple sites and wishes to connect them all together.

What type of connection should my firm get? A Leased Line? Broadband? Something else?

Firms tend to start with a contended ADSL connection, then graduate to a dedicated connection once broadband becomes inadequate to meet their needs.
Firms with multiple locations will often get a leased line for their Head Office, leased lines for their mid-sized offices, and broadband for any shops, home-workers, and for tiny two-man offices.

Can anyone have a leased line?

Leased lines work in conjunction with the existing telephone network infrastructure, so offer a very wide geographical coverage. Unlike other connectivity services such as broadband, leased lines are only available in parts of the country that are well served. Companies located in rural areas must assess their upstream bandwidth requirements prior to choosing a location.

Is a leased line suitable for heavy bandwidth use?

Yes, leased lines are a permanently available internet connection and offer the most resilient method of access. Companies are not competing with other users for the bandwidth and enable businesses to place higher levels of dependence on the internet.

What can I use a leased line for? 

Leased lines are suitable for various applications. There are no restrictions for leased line use so long as the correct size/speed line will support your business in future. You can use it for internet access, to connect your internal or external server to the internet or to connect offices together via VPN.

What size leased line would suit my business? 

That depends on the number of users and the applications running. Arrow will be able to advise you accordingly.