Leased Line Prices in the UK

Leased line prices have come a long way from where they first started. The telecoms market finally got opened up to competitors to BT’s dominance in 1981 thanks to the government. The competition initially came from Mercury Communications, a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless and has grown from there.

1984 saw more changed as BT was privatised. OFTEL was also created with the main aim of ensuring fair trading between the competition and BT. Unfortunately, OFTEL ended up getting a bit of a bad name in the early days due to the fact that businesses though that they were too lenient with BT. A few of the reasons for this was the slow roll out of ADSL as this was classed as having a negative effect on BT’s ever growing ISDN service, plus LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) which could have caused huge issues for BT’s monopoly on ADSL provision and line rental.

IT took OFTEL 17 years before deciding to make BT offer leased lines on a wholesale basis! BT leased line pricing from that point on was never the same. The competition were now in business being able to market, sell, provision and bill leased lines in the UK themselves.

The dot com boom (and crash) back in 2000 also payed a major role. One of the effects is that it created several providers who could now undercut BT leased line pricing simply because they had their own fibre networks.

OFTEL’s next step was to push for Local Loop Unbundling and sensible costings with regards infrastructure and wholesale services. OFTEL merged with a select few other regulators and OFCOM was born in 2003.

OFCOM was the voice that, realistically OFTEL should have been, never listening to BT’s attempts at regulatory capture. After pressure from OFCOM, BT agreed to split its main operational power into three independent sectors consisting of BT OpenReach, BT Wholesale and finally, BT Retail.

BT stated that BT Retail would not get preferential treatment from BT OpenReach or BT Wholesale. They wanted to favour the retail arm but they couldn’t so hence the statement about the treatment. They wanted to get OFCOM off the case with the retail division and it worked to a certain level.

OFCOM reduced the regulation to the BT Retail arm as a consequence. The 3 way split of the company now made it an enticing marketplace to enter for the big brands out there in the UK such as TalkTalk, SKY and O2 to take on the opportunity of Local Loop Unbundling which brought competition at a wholesale level across a lot of the UK.

Since then, leased line prices have fallen by around 92% which is a staggering amount and the competition for the lowest prices starts and ends with us due to our price promise guarantee. If you would like to find out just how much a leased line will cost you at your location then either fill in the quote tool at the top of this page or, if for any reason it is not working, simply fill in your details below.

This is the perception but in some instances prices have actually gone up. The overall pattern is that over the years Ethernet costs have definitely gone down. Will it stay this way? Only time will tell. It depends if the carriers get greedy.

With ISDN and all traditional copper lines being switched off by 2025, the need for business bandwidth will increase as hosted voice will become the “go to” replacement and to run that well you need a dedicated connection.

Carriers are well aware of this and it may cause an increase in pricing simply due to the increased need, but even if they do, you can be safe in the knowledge that we will still offer the best prices in the UK.

Renewal pricing is another area of despair at the moment. Once your leased line is installed (which can take up to 3 months) and your 3 year term is up, you would expect prices to come down, but at the moment the market has hit a period of high renewal quotes. The easiest option is to keep your line in place purely because of the time it would take to replace it but it certainly seems it is worth shopping around now so you can save money. In some cases, an awful lot of money. As we are carrier independent, we can do this for you always guaranteeing you the best costs.

Generally though, as internet transit costs have fallen, such as the overall improvements in optical networking we are seeing that leased line pricing is dropping as a result. It can also reduce the costs of the data flowing over these connections. The majority of leased lines are used for accessing the internet. The demand for internet transit has gone through the roof in recent times with people going on the internet, they then order a  higher speed connection so they can stream music and watch films online as an example.

Due to the rise in demand (initially from consumers), the knock on effect is one of a decline in pricing, making leased line connectivity a lot more affordable. In this day and age we would rather pay more and have more bandwidth. It seems you can never have enough!

The overall feeling is that for the next few years at least, prices should continue to fall for new connections with us. Optical networking technology is improving all the time, network equipment will continue to become more advanced and as a result costs will fall.

Competition will, as always continue. This can only be good for the businesses in the market for a leased line as prices will be drastically reduced by companies like ourselves. Instead of going direct to the likes of BT and Virgin, paying over the odds and getting the exact same line from them as you would from us, but with us you have a whole lot more money in your pocket!

The demand for bandwidth will continue to grow year on year. Here’s hoping the carriers don’t get greedy around 2025 as a result of the copper switch off. If they don’t then prices will continue to fall which is good news for all of us!

A leased line is a private telecommunications line that permanently connects two locations to provide reliable, guaranteed bandwidth for data, internet and voice services.

Leased lines provide symmetric bandwidth, meaning that the upstream and downstream speeds are the same. These speeds range from 10Mb right up to 10Gb.

When selecting your service speed you also select a bearer speed which is the maximum your line can carry in the future. So when receiving a leased line quote you will see figures quoted such as 10Mb on a 100Mb bearer – which means you are taking a 10Mb service on a 100Mb bearer.

At any point in the future you can increase your speed to 20Mb, 30Mb right up to the limit of 100Mb.

 Typically there are three main types of leased line connection:

2Connect have been around since 2008 and offer an online leased line quote tool so you can get instant leased line pricing without having to wait using a real-time carrier pricing tool.

The pricing that comes back is an average, meaning it pings out to all the providers we work with and comes back with an average price for you.  We then do a complete check on the area to come back with an accurate price for you. Most pricing is based on a fully managed service including router, 24/7 support and IP addresses.

Our leased line prices are based on wholesale pricing from the leading UK providers. We get the best costings available at each location. To back this up, any quote you receive, we will not only tidy it up to make it even more cost effective but we will offer you a price promise guarantee!

If you find cheaper pricing elsewhere, not only do we price match but we knock another 5% off the total contract value!

Our leased line pricing tool will give you an instant free quote, unlike other sites which require you to leave your contact details.

We work with a lot of the leading brands/businesses in the UK. Feel free to ask for references.

Leased line contracts usually last for either 12 months, 36 months or 60 months. See the chart to find out what percentage of businesses take what term. As you can see, 3 years is the best. The longer the lease term the lower the set up and installation charges. For lease terms of 36 months or greater, the installation charge is always waived with us.

Leased line prices are usually a fixed monthly rate. This monthly rate is determined by the speed of the symmetric connection and the distance of the fibre line.

There are two different types of pricing band – on-net and off-net. On-net, as the name suggests means you are in a good location and there should be no issue with installation of your line.

If you are in a rural location then this is most likely off-net where the costs will be slightly higher as there will be more work required to get the line installed. Please ask for more details if you are unsure.

The most common option is a single site internet leased line connection which simply connects an office to the internet.

Ideal for businesses that are struggling with their current bandwidth and need a private uncontended line just for their use. They also benefit from symmetrical speeds.

Another option is a point to point connection which is ideal to connect two offices together so they can upload and download as much data between the two sites as they want over a super fast connection.

We also offer multi-site connectivity. This gets referred to as MPLS or WAN. Basically this allows you to connect as many offices together as you wish. You can also add more offices at any time. Due to the complexity of these offerings, it is essential to speak to one of our advisors before deciding this is the route for you as we can tailor a solution around your exact needs.

We can also add a backup line of your choice to any connection meaning if your main line went down, it would automatically failover onto your backup line meaning your up-time will be 100%.

For the best advice on pricing, or if you have any questions relating to your leased line requirements, please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll get you connected?