A leased line, often called Ethernet, is a direct and dedicated fibre connection from your premise to a local point of presence (usually the telephone exchange) which then connects to a national fibre ATM network to the ISP’s network who then connect to the Internet. It can also connect two premises directly. It has the advantage of high reliability and low latency due to being all fibre.

If you compare a 300Mbps FTTP (fibre to the premise) product against a 300Mbps Leased line you’ll see that the leased line is generally much faster. FTTP uses fibre from your local street cabinet to your premises, and is full fibre end-to-end, but the connection is shared with other users. FTTC is fibre to the cabinet and then slow copper for the remainder. So with these “shared” broadband technologies, you share the fibre and its routing equipment with lots of other users – sometimes hundreds. Leased Line speeds are also asymmetric, meaning the speeds are the same for both upload and download whereas FTTP/FTTC tend to be lower bandwidth and have about 10% upload capability – like 300Mbps down, 30Mbps up for example.

Depending on the speed of the connection, we supply either Cisco 1800 (sub 300Mbps) or Cisco 3800 (300Mbp+) routers, pre-configured and optimised to deliver full speeds. These routers are datacentre-grade and offer very high lifetime and uptime capabilities – they are top of the range. The routers remain the property of WebMate at all times and its configuration cannot be changed at all to add extra functions such as firewall or bespoke routing – this should be performed inside of your network. You are required to provide a cool place for this to reside with plenty of airflow (we’ll choose a good place when we install everything). We can supply security appliances or advise on these should you require it.

Yes, leased lines are a great way to connect offices together where you have high data sharing for files or voice. Because you eliminate the Internet from these transactions, your connection is even faster and more reliable. Some companies chose to have bespoke setups with one or more leased lines connecting branch offices and one for internet access. We’ll be happy to discuss the best option to suit your needs.

Typically you should allow a minimum of 60-90 days for delivery. Sometimes it can take longer than this especially if planning permission delays come into play (if roads need digging up for example). Typically we see this when there are other works in progress on the particular road the contractor needs. Because trenching will often be required for at least some part of the installation, sometimes with several different segments – sometimes different councils, the process can take a great deal of surveying and planning. Longer than 90 days is rare, but rest assured, we work very hard to deliver the leased line as quickly as possible.

Our leased lines come with free installation and free router, so there are normally no additional costs. The installation is carried out normally by a local contractor or the “last” mile provider (Openreach, Virgin, TalkTalk etc). Any works over and above £3000 will be passed on at cost. This is fairly rare – but if you live in a lighthouse, there will probably be additional install costs!

Yes, you can upgrade your speeds up to the maximum for the bearer speed of your line. You just pay the additional monthly costs up to the end of your contract. You cannot upgrade from a 100Mbps bearer to a 1Gbps bearer during the contract though.