A leased line is a dedicated, fixed-bandwidth data connection. It allows data-hungry businesses to have a reliable, high-quality internet connection with guarantees of upload and download speed, uptime and resilience. “Leased” refers to the connection which is rented by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) directly to a business, resulting in a service above and beyond what standard broadband provides. Leased lines usually have these distinctive characteristics:
Symmetrical
Leased lines must be symmetrical. This means they have the same upload and download speed.
Uncontended
Leased lines are – by definition – uncontended connections, not shared with other users.
Point to point
They connect two points together, eg the ISP with a business location.
We’re all familiar with a standard internet connection. We get home, connect our phone, tablet or TV and start to stream, browse or download content. But when everyone in your area is doing the same thing, this can slow down the connection. This is because these connections are “contended” – bandwidth is shared amongst the users of a local area.