Leased Line Costs

Leased line costs start at around £90 per month for a basic EoFTTC (ethernet over fibre to the cabinet) line, and can reach upwards of £800 per month for a much faster full fibre line. Prices depend on a few factors, including the type of line, the provider, the connection speed, and even your business’s location.

On this page, we’ll compare the range of leased line prices available from the UK’s top providers.

But if you’d like a totally accurate view of how much a leased line will cost your business, try our free quote-finding tool to get matched up with the best leased lines providers for you. They’ll be in touch with tailored, no-obligation quotes for you to compare.

How much does a leased line cost in the UK?

For a leased line, you’ll pay a monthly charge on a contract basis. This monthly charge can vary wildly depending on a lot of factors, with the cheapest leased lines costing around £90 per month, and the most expensive reaching well over £800 per month.

Before we go into detail about specific provider prices, let’s take a look at an overview of the cost ranges offered by some of the top leased line providers in the UK:

Leased line costs explained

The best way to understand leased line costs is to actually look at the prices currently on the market. In this section, we’ll do a deep dive into some of the UK’s best leased line providers, their pricing plans, and what you’ll get on them. Those providers are:

TalkTalk Business

TalkTalk Business offers some of the most affordable leased line prices on the market – which is one of the reasons why it’s our top pick for small businesses.

Of course, those cheap prices are reserved for slow connection speeds of up to 20Mbps. This is fine for small businesses, but might not meet your needs if you’re growing quickly. TalkTalk’s fastest lines cost a minimum of £243 per month, which is still competitive, but not the absolute cheapest.

The free installation TalkTalk offers on its 36-month contracts is a huge boon. And the fact that this provider also offers 12-month contracts for businesses that don’t want to commit for so long is, in our opinion, pretty refreshing!

To learn more, check out our TalkTalk leased lines review.

BT

You may not expect it from the UK’s most familiar telecoms giant, but BT’s leased line prices are pretty competitive – you can get speeds of 50Mbps to 100Mbps from £195 per month, which is really good value. It’s also worth noting that BT offers free installation, and will pay up to £2,800 towards any unexpected construction charges that crop up, which is reassuring.

However, take note of the fact that BT’s favoured contract length is 60 months – that’s five years. If you don’t want to be tied in for that long, you’ll pay more for a shorter contract (if one is available).

Virgin Media

Virgin Media’s starting price of £270 per month for 100Mbps is not bad, and £550 per month for 1Gbps also seems reasonable (it’s cheaper than Vodafone’s 1Gbps line, as we’ll see in a moment). We can’t advise on how much Virgin Media’s 10Gbps line costs, as the provider works out bespoke prices for that one.

Unfortunately we can’t be sure how much Virgin Media charges for installation or how long its contracts last, as the company stays tight-lipped on these points.

Vodafone

Vodafone’s leased lines are the most expensive we’ve seen, starting at £255 per month for a comparatively measly 50Mbps, and finishing up at £610+ for a 1Gbps line. For all of its lines, its prices are either beaten or almost matched by the other providers on this list.

Vodafone also says it charges a £2,000 installation fee when applicable, which isn’t hugely clear. You can assume this fee will be either charged or waived depending on the contract you choose, or depending on the results of your site survey.

Other leased line costs

As well as your monthly charge, the other key leased line cost you’ll have to contend with is installation fees. Let’s take a look at these in more detail:

Installation fees

As you can see from the information above, installation costs can range from a lovely £0 to several thousands of pounds. The amount you pay for installation will depend on:

• Your leased line provider, and whether they offer to waive installation fees
• The length of contract you choose
• The results of your site survey, and whether or not significant construction work needs to take place
• The amount of construction charges your provider offers to cover for you

The best thing to do is get in contact with potential providers to confirm exactly how much installation will cost for you. Be sure you have a good idea before reaching the point of no return with the company, as you don’t want to be saddled with charges you’d rather not pay.

If you’d like an easy way to get in contact with multiple suitable providers quickly, look no further than our free quote-finding tool. We’ll match you up with the best leased line providers for you, who’ll be in touch directly with answers to your installation questions and tailored, no-obligation quotes.

What is a leased line?

Also known as DIA (dedicated internet access), a leased line is a dedicated data connection that your business doesn’t have to share with anyone else. In other words, it gives your business a fast and private internet network.

What are the benefits?

With prices starting at £90 per month and reaching over £800 per month, leased lines are obviously much more expensive than conventional business broadband. To understand why that is, it’s important to look at the benefits leased lines offer:

• They’re uncontended, meaning you don’t share your bandwidth with any other building or organisation
• They’re symmetric, meaning their upload speeds are just as fast as their download speeds – which better suits what businesses tend to use the internet for
• They tend of offer much faster connection speeds than conventional broadband, usually reaching highs of 10Gbps
• They come with SLAs (service level agreements) that hold your provider to a high standard of customer service, consistent uptime, and speedy fault repairs

Why compare leased line prices?

If you’re looking save on leased line costs, jumping to sign up with the first provider you find is a mistake. Properly comparing all the prices plans available from a range of different providers is a simple way to make sure you find the cheapest deal for your needs.

Well, we say simple, but we know the price comparison process can be a bit bewildering. Especially when some providers don’t share their prices publicly, and others change theirs based on where your business is and the contract length you want.

That’s why we developed our free quote-finding tool. Answer a few questions about your needs, and we’ll do the legwork for you, and match you up with the providers that best suit your priorities. They’ll then be in touch directly, to answer your questions and provide no-obligation quotes that have been tailored to your business. It’s a quick and easy way to compare the best prices for you.

Leased line alternatives

When it comes to fast and reliable internet, a leased line is the gold standard. But with that comes elevated costs – and if you don’t want to spend £90 to £800+ per month, you’ll need to use an alternative.

Let’s take a look at what’s available:

ADSL (conventional broadband)

ADSL stands for asymmetric digital subscriber line. It’s currently the most common kind of internet connection in the UK, and it’s the cheapest option for businesses – but it also comes with the slowest speeds, averaging at around 10Mbps.

It is possible to get an uncontended ADSL connection, so your business won’t have to share bandwidth with anyone else. This is similar to a leased line, except it’ll be much slower, and come with faster download speeds than upload (hence the “asymmetric” in ADSL).

SDSL (conventional broadband, but symmetric)

SDSL stands for symmetric digital subscriber line. It’s ADSL’s better balanced sibling – it’s very similar to ADSL, except it gives the same amount of bandwidth to uploads as it does downloads.

FTTC or FTTP (fibre broadband)

FTTC stands for fibre to the cabinet; this is when fibre carries the connection between the exchange and your local cabinet, and copper wiring carries it from there to your building. FTTP stands for fibre to the premises, and it’s when fibre is used all the way to your building. It’s also known as full fibre.

Fibre broadband is always going to be much faster than ADSL or SDSL, with speeds of up to 1Gbps available (speeds will depend on where you’re based, and the type of fibre broadband available to you). Like ADSL, it’s usually available as a contended, asymmetric connection.

The problem with fibre broadband is that it’s not available to everyone, especially when it comes to businesses. It could be suggested that fibre has been rolled out with residential customers in mind, as business districts aren’t as well served as residential homes. But if you can get it, it’s a good alternative to a leased line.

What makes a provider good value for money?

As a business professional, you’ll know that “cheap” isn’t the same thing as “good value”. But what makes a leased line provider good value for money?

Let’s take a look at the factors to investigate when you want your pounds to stretch as far as possible:

• Bandwidth and speed: how many Mbps or Gbps are you getting for your money? Do a little mathematics to work out how much every 1Mbps costs on each plan.
• SLA: look closely at the level of service you’ll get in exchange for your pennies. What’s the target percentage uptime? How quickly does the provider promise to fix problems? And it never hurts to check out online customer reviews to gage how the provider responds to issues.
• Contract length: consider the total amount you’ll pay over the duration of each available contract. Longer contracts usually have cheaper per month charges, and so amount to better value.
• Extras: does the provider throw in any extra benefits, like additional online security? Or will you have to pay extra to get everything you need?

Leased line price comparison

Leased line costs start at £90 per month for a basic EoFTTC service, and can reach well over £800 per month for a full fibre line. Installation may come free, depending on the provider and contract you choose. But if not, it can add up to thousands of pounds.

We know finding accurate quotes for your own business can be really difficult. Here’s an easier way – using our free quote-finding tool.

Answer a handful of questions about your needs, and we’ll match you up with the best leased lines providers for you. They’ll then be in touch directly, with accurate, no-obligation quotes that have been tailored to your business. We’ve been helping businesses find the right services, at the right prices for them, for over ten years – this is a fast and easy way to compare the best options.