Leased Line vs Business Broadband: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Both Internet Leased Lines and business broadband run on fiber, and both can be fast. They are built for different expectations, though, and choosing the wrong one either wastes money or leaves your business exposed.

Contention

Business broadband shares access capacity among customers. Performance is very good most of the time but can vary at peak hours. A leased line gives you dedicated capacity that nobody else uses.

Speed symmetry

Broadband is often asymmetric or best-effort on upload. A leased line is fully symmetric: upload equals download.

Service-level agreement

Broadband comes with priority support targets. A leased line carries a contractual SLA covering availability, response and restoration, with service credits if targets are missed.

IP addresses

Broadband may offer a single static IP as an add-on. A leased line includes a static IPv4 block and IPv6.

Monitoring

Broadband faults are usually reported by the customer. Leased lines are proactively monitored 24/7 by a NOC.

Cost

Broadband is significantly cheaper per Mbps. Leased line pricing reflects dedicated capacity, last-mile build and SLA commitments.

Which should you choose?

• Shops, clinics and small offices: business broadband is usually ideal.
• Offices with servers, 30+ users, strict uptime needs or heavy uploads: a leased line.
• Mission-critical sites: a leased line with a broadband or second ILL backup.

Many businesses use both

A common design uses an ILL as the primary connection and business broadband as a failover link. You get guaranteed performance day to day and an affordable backup when something goes wrong.

The bottom line

Choose based on what downtime and slowdowns cost your business. When predictability is worth paying for, a leased line is the answer; when cost matters most, business broadband delivers excellent value.

Learn more about Internet Leased Line (ILL) from UbiFi, or talk to our team.