When Should a Small Business Upgrade to a Leased Line?

Business broadband is an excellent fit for many shops and small offices. As a business grows, however, certain needs point clearly towards a dedicated Internet Leased Line. Here are the signs.

You host services on site

If you run servers, a VPN gateway for remote staff, an IP PBX or applications that clients connect to, you need consistent upload and a dedicated connection with static IPs.

Clients or regulators require an SLA

Enterprise customers, financial regulators or contracts may require guaranteed uptime with documented service credits. Business broadband offers priority support but not a contractual availability SLA.

Upload has become your bottleneck

Teams that send large files to clients, edit video in the cloud, run many simultaneous calls or upload CCTV footage benefit from symmetric speeds where upload equals download.

Evening or peak slowdowns hurt productivity

If performance varies noticeably at certain times of day, dedicated bandwidth removes contention from the equation.

You need to connect multiple sites

Leased lines combined with Business Connect create reliable links between offices, warehouses and data centres.

Headcount has grown

Once you pass 30–50 users on cloud apps and video calls, a leased line usually becomes more cost-effective than piling on broadband connections.

Downtime costs more than the upgrade

Calculate what an hour offline costs in lost sales and idle staff. If it exceeds the price difference between broadband and a leased line within a few incidents, the upgrade pays for itself.

Keep broadband as a backup

When you upgrade, keep your business broadband as a failover link. Together they provide strong resilience at a sensible cost.

The bottom line

When predictability matters more than price, an Internet Leased Line is the right next step. We can migrate you from broadband to a leased line on the same premises with minimal downtime.

Learn more about Business Broadband from UbiFi, or talk to our team.