Lease Line Guide – How Lease Lines Are Miles Better Than ADSL

A lease line is a symmetric data connection between two points. As the name suggests, you lease it rather than buy it. Many providers will charge you an installation fee for installing the connection, and providing you with the necessary hardware.

Lease lines are used almost exclusively by organisations. Seldom do individuals buy them. The reason is that they're a LOT more expensive than ADSL connections, as they actually deliver what they promise.

Go to many any ADSL provider and they'll over 'Up to 20Mbps' broadband. What they DON'T tell you is that…

i) It probably won't be 20Mbit/s, ever. As you're too far from the local telephone exchange, and ADSL speeds drop as the length of your phone line increases. A 20Mbit/s lease line will provide 20Mbit/s, period.

ii) It's only 20Mbit/s downstream. Upstream your connection probably provides less than 1Mbit/s. A 20Mbit/s lease line will provide 20Mbit/s both upstream and downstream.

iii) It's not 20Mbit/s at all times. It's 20Mbit/s to the equipment in your local exchange, then God-knows-what from their to your provider's network, as most providers oversell the available bandwidth on the basis that not everyone will use the connection at the same time. At peak times, this backhaul bandwidth is fully utilised, leaving less than 20Mbit/s for your use. In contrast, a 20Mbit/s leased line has dedicated bandwidth for it's entire journey, from you to your local exchange and right through to your provider's network. The connection speed doesn't drop at peak times.

iv) It's not unmetered. Most ADSL connections are being watched. If you download or upload too much you'll hit your monthly data transfer quota, or exceed some unspecified level that is deemed to constitute 'fair usage'. This may cause your connection to slow down, or for you to be charged extra. In contrast, most leased lines are unmetered. If you have a 20Mbit/s connection, you can send and receive 20Mbit/s of data all day every day, in both directions, and no-one will bat an eye-lid.

v) It's traffic-shaped. most ADSL connections are traffic-shaped. This means that your provider deliberately slows down some of your traffic so to free up bandwidth for other customers to use. Lease lines aren't traffic-shaped. And any prioritisation of traffic is optional.