UK Leased Line Providers

In the UK, businesses and the requirement for more bandwidth are increasing year on year so is the supply keeping up with demand? I think a lot of businesses that do not have their offices in central areas would strongly disagree.

We still have places that can get only 1/2Mb download speed. In 2018, that is hard to believe but it’s true! The government has plowed millions of pounds into making the UK a better-connected place but unfortunately, there is no magic wand that can be waved, it simply takes a lot of time and effort and of course – money to keep up with the changing demands.

Bandwidth for most businesses is usually the number 1 source that they simply cannot be without. That then asks the question – why are so many businesses in the UK cutting corners and using a broadband product with no service level agreement? Yes, it’s cheap but why undervalue your business? It simply makes no sense!

If you’re an individual in an office then this type of product may be OK for your as I am sure, your bandwidth requirement will not be the same as a business with 100 staff as an example. But businesses with lots of staff and using any type of broadband product are simply a disaster waiting to happen.

Any business with a requirement for reliable bandwidth simply has to use a leased line. They are totally uncontended products so you share them with nobody unlike broadband plus they come as standard with 24/7 support, a managed router plus IP addresses along with a ½ hour response and 4-hour fix. Now that is what businesses need along with synchronous speeds. A leased line ticks all the boxes.

Here come the next big problem and an absolute pet hate of mine! Businesses across the whole of the UK are wasting literally hundreds of millions of pounds per year. Why? Because they simply think that the only leased line provider in the UK is either BT or Virgin. So what do they do next? Yes, you guessed it – They go straight to either of these 2 companies and pay retail pricing for a leased line.

This is where the big problem lies. BT, Virgin, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Colt etc the list goes on and on yet businesses keep going direct and paying a huge premium for the service. In the days of price comparison sites, why are people not typing in leased line costs, leased line providers etc? It simply baffles me.

Going direct means one thing. You will pay more. We found a company just for a quick look called 2Connect Data Services Ltd based in the UK who not only offer a leased line comparison site but offer a price promise guarantee as well! On top of this, they are still using the likes of BT, Virgin etc but at drastically reduced rates.

When people buy car insurance, the first thing they do is go to a price comparison site to see if they can get it cheaper. Businesses need to start doing the same for leased lines. Surely the money that you save can be invested in other areas of the business?

Basically, it does not matter which leased line provider you go with because every single one of them offers pretty much the exact same product with the exact same service levels. Even routers are in most cases narrow down to around the same 3 or 4 across most speeds! If you went to TalkTalk, BT, Virgin, and Vodafone and asked for a quote for a leased line, you would get 4 different prices. It’s mad.

All leased lines are subject to a site survey which basically means that any pricing you are given is basically irrelevant until they have conducted the site survey and confirm that they are able to deliver this “on cost”.

Another key service which we found with the company we mentioned earlier was their ability to tell us what sort of area we were in. As an example, if we were in a good area they could simply tell us that the system they use is showing up as an easy install. It shows if the fiber is available which is a real breakthrough.

We also had some really bad areas where they come back with a price band on what the excess charges would be so we could make a decision BEFORE signing the paperwork. Brilliant!

If you need reliable internet connectivity, don’t just follow the usual route and overspend! Get up to speed, start saving money and enjoy your new connection even more!