The advantages of a leased line over broadband are not in outright download speeds – these may well be slower – but that you can have the same speed in both directions (synchronous connection). Plus, there will also be no contention from other businesses or individuals using the link, so it will maintain its performance levels regardless as to the time of day.
Let’s backtrack for a second and look at that in a bit more detail. Being synchronous, a leased line means you get the same transfer speed for data in both directions. If you have systems in the cloud, therefore, it means your critical business processing may be reliant on having an internet connection, so this equal speed is a big advantage as you’re going to be uploading large volumes of data as well as downloading it.
No Contention
A synchronous circuit also makes for more reliable use of communication services including video calling and VoIP telephony which are increasingly popular amongst business users.
There is, of course, no contention, and therefore no competition for the circuit either. This is an important advantage for Internet-based businesses, especially if you intend running your own in-house servers to host your website, where a fast connection in both directions is crucial.
This also means that, unlike with broadband, there are no usage caps on the amount of data you can transfer, so at the busiest times you are not going to face an unexpected bill for exceeding your data allowance.
Get up to £2,500 towards the cost of an Ethernet connection
Remember even ‘unlimited’ broadband is usually subject to a ‘fair use’ clause that can restrict the amount you’re able to download by throttling the connection if you use it too much. This can often be geared to peak traffic times too. There’s little point having unlimited data in the middle of the night when you need it during the working day.
In a bid to make fast and affordable broadband available across the board, the government’s Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme offers eligible UK businesses the chance to claim vouchers of up to £2,500 to put towards the cost of an Ethernet connection.
