Business Leased Lines and Dedicated Connectivity for UK Businesses

What Is a Leased Line and How Does It Differ from Broadband?

A leased line — formally known as a Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) circuit — is a private, uncontended fibre connection running from your business premises directly to the carrier's network. It is different from standard business broadband in three fundamental ways:

• Dedicated capacity: Broadband is a contended service, meaning you share the available bandwidth with other businesses and homes in your area. During peak hours (typically 8–10am and 5–7pm), available speeds can drop significantly. A leased line is dedicated exclusively to your business — the contracted speed is guaranteed at all times, regardless of what your neighbours are doing.
• Symmetric speeds: Broadband products are typically asymmetric — faster download than upload. A 1 Gbps broadband product might deliver 1 Gbps download but only 100 Mbps upload. A 1 Gbps leased line delivers 1 Gbps in both directions simultaneously, which is essential for businesses that upload large files, run VoIP, host applications, or use cloud services heavily.
• Guaranteed SLA: Business broadband comes with no meaningful uptime guarantee — if it fails, the provider will fix it when they can. A leased line comes with a contractual SLA specifying uptime (typically 99.9% or 99.95%), fault response times (typically four hours), fault repair times (typically eight hours), and financial compensation if the SLA is breached.

Who Needs a Leased Line?

Not every business needs a leased line. It is worth considering if:

• You have 25 or more staff sharing an internet connection
• Your business relies heavily on cloud services (Microsoft 365, Salesforce, ERP systems) that require consistent bandwidth
• You host servers or systems that external clients or remote workers need to access reliably
• You use VoIP telephony and need guaranteed quality of service for calls
• Your broadband connection regularly slows at peak times, affecting productivity
• You need a guaranteed SLA for regulatory or contractual reasons

For very small businesses (under 10 staff) with light cloud usage, business broadband is often sufficient. For businesses of 25+ staff or with high bandwidth demands, the productivity and reliability benefits of a leased line typically justify the cost differential.

Leased Line Costs: What to Expect

Leased line pricing in the UK varies considerably based on speed, location, and provider. As a guide:

• 100 Mbps leased line: £150–£400 per month depending on postcode and provider
• 1 Gbps leased line: £300–£700 per month in most UK commercial areas
• 10 Gbps leased line: £800–£2,000+ per month, typically for data-intensive operations or multi-site aggregation

Prices are significantly affected by location. Businesses in dense urban areas (London, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield) generally pay less than rural or semi-rural locations, where the distance to the nearest fibre exchange is greater. AMVIA accesses pricing from all major UK carriers — including BT Openreach, Virgin Media Business, Zayo, CityFibre, and Hyperoptic — and will present the most competitive option for your specific postcode and speed requirement.

Installation costs are typically zero or a one-off connection charge of £500–£1,500, depending on the carrier and whether fibre is already available to your building. Most carriers also require a minimum 36-month contract term for leased lines.

The Installation Process: What to Expect

Installing a new leased line takes longer than activating broadband. The process involves a physical survey, fibre installation if not already present, and carrier coordination — and typically takes 60–90 days from order to live service.

The typical installation timeline is:

• Days 1–5: Order placed, carrier conducts desktop survey to confirm availability and pricing
• Days 5–15: Physical site survey by carrier engineer to plan the installation route
• Days 15–45: Fibre installation — if fibre already reaches the building, this phase is shorter
• Days 45–60: Testing, configuration, and cutover from existing connection

AMVIA manages the entire process, including coordinating with Openreach or alternative carrier engineers, tracking milestone dates, and ensuring the cutover from your existing connection is managed with minimal disruption. If you need connectivity sooner (for example, for a new premises opening), we can provide a temporary 4G/5G business router while the leased line is being installed.

SD-WAN: Getting More from Your Leased Line

SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) is a technology that sits above your physical connectivity — intelligently routing traffic across multiple connections to optimise performance and resilience.

For businesses with multiple sites, SD-WAN allows you to manage connectivity across all locations from a single management portal, prioritise business-critical applications (VoIP, video conferencing, ERP) over lower-priority traffic (software updates, social media), and automatically failover to a backup connection if the primary circuit fails.

SD-WAN is not necessary for single-site businesses with a single leased line, but becomes valuable for businesses with three or more sites or complex bandwidth management requirements.

Leased Line Resilience and Failover

Despite a 99.9% SLA, leased lines can fail — typically due to physical damage to the fibre (roadworks, cable strikes, flooding). For businesses where internet connectivity is business-critical, pairing the primary leased line with a secondary connection provides resilience.

Common failover options include:

• Secondary leased line: Maximum resilience, but highest cost. Used for trading floors, hospitals, and critical infrastructure.
• Business broadband failover: Lower cost, lower bandwidth, but activates automatically if the leased line fails. Suitable for most SMEs.
• 4G/5G router failover: Fastest to deploy, no installation required. Bandwidth is limited and may be unsuitable for large call volumes or high-bandwidth applications, but ideal for short-term outages.

AMVIA can supply and manage failover connectivity alongside your primary leased line — with automatic failover configured through SD-WAN or a managed router — so that a leased line failure does not cause business disruption.

Choosing a Leased Line Provider

When selecting a leased line provider or broker, consider:

• Network agnosticism: A provider tied to a single carrier cannot always offer the best price for your postcode. AMVIA works with all major UK carriers.
• SLA terms: Compare not just the uptime percentage but the fault response time, repair time, and compensation mechanism. A 99.9% SLA with a 24-hour repair time is materially different from one with a four-hour repair time.
• Installation management: Who manages the installation process? Some brokers simply pass you to the carrier and step back. AMVIA manages the entire process end-to-end.
• Ongoing support: Who do you call when there is a fault? Your managed IT provider should manage fault reporting to the carrier on your behalf — not leave you to navigate the carrier's business support line.