Business Broadband Plans vs Leased Line Internet Circuit

While there are multiple ways of accessing the Internet, broadband seems to be the most popular among them for Internet access in homes and SOHO segments. But, Internet Leased Lines are preferred over broadband connections for providing internet connectivity to offices, corporates and organizations, etc. Let’s find out why!

An Internet Leased Line is usually a dedicated line which offers direct connectivity to the Internet. This is done by connecting the nearest service provider nodal point and the customer premises with a dedicated optical fiber cable or radio links or any combination of the above.

While there are business broadband options available at pretty good price points, Internet Leased Lines are still preferred with a lot of corporate customers for the following reasons:

SYMMETRICAL SPEEDS : Internet Leased Lines offer same speed for both uploads and downloads (symmetric connectivity), while in Business Broadband the speeds are always optimized for downloads and the upload speeds are much lesser. Symmetric connectivity is critical for applications like file sharing between two branches, hosting websites/ mail servers etc, video conferencing/ surveillance, voice over IP etc. all of which are used by medium and large businesses regularly.
CONTENTION RATIO : Generally, broadband connectivity is shared with multiple users in a locality. Broadband plans generally denote the best bandwidth that can be attained and not the assured bandwidth levels. But a 4 Mbps Internet Leased Line should give 4 Mbps of performance as it is a dedicated connection without any sharing (tested on a LAN connected single PC).
Reliable with SLA Agreement : Broadband is always connected to the nearest hub, which has all customers connected to the same hub, while leased circuits are connected directly to the nearest dedicated hub to make sure there is no sharing and connectivity issue, for some or the other reasons. So, it is easier to offer SLA (Service Level Agreements) to the customer and Internet Leased Lines generally come with an SLA. While the business broadband plans doesnt come with any kind of SLA or agreements for performance guarantee. So, Internet Leased Lines are more reliable.
Connectivity Redundancy : Business Broadband Plans will only be delivered over wireless radio. While Leased Circuits can be delivered over optical fiber and a wireless backup can be added for extra redundancy. Internet Leased lines are provided through multiple media – Fiber, Wireless Radio links or a combination of the above. Optical media communication is more reliable and offers better fault tolerance/ performance/ monitoring abilities, especially for higher bandwidths.
Unlimited Usage : Business Broadband Plans are restricted to a specific usage, after which your FUP Speed kicks in. Internet Leased Lines come with unlimited usage plans which enables companies to add services like video, voice etc over IP in addition to the internet/ data connectivity.
Dedicated Public Static IP Address : Business Broadband Plans wont be getting any kind of static IP, with gateway and subnet mask, as its not allowed by TRAI regulations. Internet Leased Lines offer a permanent IP address which enables organizations to run their own mail servers, web servers and other applications.
Better QoS : Internet Leased Lines offer better QoS (Quality of Service) when compared to business broadband. So, it is more effective to run convergent services like voice, video etc. over Internet Leased Lines.
Dedicated Support : Business Broadband Support is same as the regular Home broadband support with minimum response time of 12-24 hours and on-site support 24-72 hours or less. But leased circuits come with dedicated support profile, which means, you would be able to get on-site support (if required), on a weekend as well. The on-site support is restricted to working hours only (11am till 7pm). Leased Circuit owners get 24×7 support at the helpdesk with the minimum response time and they are always on the highest priority for the support team and field staff as well.
Pricing : Since Leased Circuits are dedicated, it would be expensive as usual, and if you are in a budget and not looking to run any kind of web servers, firewall routers, mail servers, then you should be fine with any business broadband plan as well. They are relatively much cheaper than the leased circuits.