A leased line is a type of telecommunications line connecting two locations. It is also known as a dedicated line, a data line, or a private line. Unlike traditional telephony communication lines, it does not have a phone number connection, and therefore is always on 24/7 and available for each side to be connected together permanently. Leased lines traditionally are used to transport data such as telephone, data, or internet services.

Although leased lines are gradually being replaced by DSL and Ethernet, they do still have some unique properties that make them ideal for certain types of communications which are not suited for other types of connections since leased lines can transport certain types of data faster than DSL or metro-net. So how can leased lines work for you? And what types of communications transport are they good for?

Installation and Setup

Connecting a permanent leased line requires installation of a fixed line to your building. This 24 hour service requires an annual rental fee and no connection or on-line charges to use the service. A dedicated line provides a back bone structure so that you can be assured that it can handle the fast and direct connection straight to the internet or your managed host server. Installation also requires that a router or hub be installed in your building. A router or hub provides the gateway onto the internet line. A router should be provided with all leased lines.

A good Company will guarantee a desiccated bandwidth with leased line speeds of no less than 2mb/s and more than 34mb/s. High bandwidth often boasts of Ethernet from 10mbps to well over 1gbps. The latency is reduced with high levels of service that remain constant and predictable. Ad all this up to the fixed rate charges for usage for easy budgeting and you have a fantastic service.

The leased line allows you to connect separate office locations so that your offices and other buildings can share data and connections. The higher speeds allow your teams to be productive thus being more effective. With your business locations interconnectivity you can even have peer to peer VoIP calling services and even share data and services within your servers. All for one price!

These lines are an ideal solution for businesses that need uninterrupted communications 24 hrs a day. Leased lines can provide any company who either wishes to use a dedicated hosting service, or just needs a direct and reliable means of communication the support they need coupled with the support for such services as video, broadcasting, linking mainframes, intranet applications, and bulk data comms solutions.

Two levels of services are often offered.

These being Standard and Fully Protected.

The Standard service should provide you 99.95% availability so if any problems should occur you can be guaranteed alternative routing so that the services are not interrupted.

With the Fully Protected service you get close to 100% availability, with complete protection on every element of your network.