Leased line.....where to shop around

[jastreet1]

Hi all,

After investing heavily into our new call centre system rolling out next month, to improve efficency, I am now looking to invest in a dedicated leased line for our internet.

The reasons for this include; over 10 computers using the internet at any one time, a lot of information stored on the cloud, 100% up time, much faster speed (currently 1MB with BT Business over 10 - 15 internet dependant computers) so on so forth. What I cannot justify is the cost especially for such low speeds - BT want £500+VAT for just 5MB!!

Unfortunately we are not lucky enough to be in a cable area and so I wondered if anyone;

- had experience of a leased line (what difference does 1:1 ratio really make?)?
- has any competitive pricing from companies out there, who are recommended for service also?

Thanks in advance.

 

[british steve]

Try EFM! Google it. Much cheaper - one company was offering 10Mbps EFM for about £250 but shop around for best deals. You could also look at line bonding? Be broadband do one I believe for £65 per month. They have offer on at the moment, 3 months free plus free connection.

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Leased lines can be very expensive, but you do get what you pay for.

The costs vary depending on where you are geographically, if you are in central london for example you have a lot more choice on provider, than if you are somewhere with only BT as a provider.

We are in central london and have a 100Meg line from BT and a 20meg from Colt telecom and then have a mixture of SDSL and leased lines into 9 regional offices on an MPLS network.

The price we pay for the leased lines all comes down to location, a 10Meg line into Watford is a lot cheaper than a 10meg line into an office in Northampton due to their being more providers in out Watford location and £500 a month for 5meg is actually pretty good.

The advantage of a proper leased line over ADSL is that you get proper SLA's and the speed you pay for is what you get, it's not slowed down by other users.

SDSL and EFM lines can be quite cost effective as they do offer SLA's and you can bond lines together to give you 2/4/6/8meg etc, however if check the SLA's before purchase as some providers whilst seeming cheap don't provide very good SLA's on fix times.

Something to watch for is that if the 5meg is on a 10meg circuit. If so that means if you expand then you will be fine up to 10meg, but then you will need a whole new circuit to be installed (very expensive) if you ever need more bandwidth than this.

Really it all comes down to where you are physically located as you may find BT is the only choice you have on leased lines if they are the only people with a feed into your building.

Are you in a shared building ? If so speak to the other companies and find out who they use, as the providers they use will already have feeds into your building and they may even be able to tell you what they pay and for what service.

Hope this helps.

Paul

 

[Paul_Rosser]

Other things to consider are what will the leased line provider actually give you, some you just get given a network cable and you have to put in a router, firewall etc So make sure these are included as a managed service as part of the deal.

Also if you are planning on having an ADSL line as a backup, make sure the router any provider gives you can accept a 2nd feed as a "hot failover".

You may also want to ask if they support Quality of Service (most cisco do) as this means you can proritise your traffic, so if you use VOIP and thats really important you can assign 1meg to that and other web browsing won't effect it.

 

[NickRyder]

Hi,

there is a really good article which explains the differences, features, advantages and benefits of a leased line versus standard ADSL or even FTTC (BT Infinity) - try Googling "[FONT=Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif]Which is better, BT Infinity (FTTC) or a Leased Line?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif]
[/FONT]At the moment there seems to be a price war going on between some of the major fibre carriers so as has already been said, you may qualify for some really good pricing. I know that our company can offer a 100Mbp/s leased line in some area's for £500 per month. And, that is a fully managed service too.

More than happy to discuss further options such as EFM etc and do a quick desktop survey if required.

 

[icuknet]

Hi all,

- had experience of a leased line (what difference does 1:1 ratio really make?)?
- has any competitive pricing from companies out there, who are recommended for service also?

You would pick a leased line if speed and reliability are key. The contention ratio itself isn't too important unless you are running very sensitive applications such as VoIP. What is key for you though, from what you have mentioned, is getting a good upload speed, and this is where a leased line will come into its own.

EFM could be an option for you, but it's no leased line in as much as it has its limitations and the SLA won't be as good.

It's best to ensure that you have a large enough bearer for future expansion. For example, we could install a 100Mbit bearer, but restrict your committed bandwidth to a tenth of that. Within a couple of days we increase the achieved speed utilising the capacity of the bearer. By getting a larger bearer the leased line can grow as you grow, and in the long run this will work out cheaper for you as opposed to purchasing new or additional leased lines.

Don't forget that owing to the symmetrical speeds of a leased line, you could easily make better use of it by running VoIP as well as your computers through it.

Feel free to email us at [email protected] confirming your address and we'll draw up some quotes for you. There are free installation deals running until the end of the year which should save you a fair amount.

Hope this helps,

Paul Barnett
ICUK

 

[Nomis Connections]

Hi jastreet1,

Leased lines are great for companies with large data demands who want an uncontended line and a solid service - which sounds like what you've described. The major advantage of leased lines is the SLAs that come with them, giving you a higher standard of connectivity and care when compared to standard broadband terms and conditions.

We do provide leased line services ourselves, so if you'd like to discuss your needs in a little more detail feel free to PM me, and we can talk you through the options.

All the best,

Matt

 

[henryc]

before going into the great expense of leased lines (expensive) and EFM (which from previous experience is terrible!) why not look at simple bonding solutions. Dual WAN routers can do it or try a company called sharedband. Infact, even BEthere offer a bonded adsl solution that may save you a bit of money. I've experienced nightmares when ex-customers have opted for a leased line and realised it's total overkill and they are stuck paying thousands because they are in contract.

 

[iandc6]

AS has been highlighted - leased line is expensive, but good. I do however know that you can do something called load balancing - where you can take two standard broadband lines and combine them to become a good solution. You can also have a backup solution if one of the lines goes down.

I've passed some clients to a company called Indigo-Comms .co.uk and they seem good and have saved one of their clients nearly £10k per annum.

They're based in the South West, so perhaps out of your area, but much of the work can be done remotely.

If you do go down the load balance route, make sure you get the best routers and switches available - Cisco are head and shoulders the best around

 

[iandc6]

You will be recommended leased lines from anyone with a vested interest as the margins are great for suppliers

 

[jastreet1]

Krish,

Thank you for your email. I currently am dealing with BT but due to constant let downs (after already paying £10k on equipment and being messed around on installation) on our voice service I am unlikely to opt for a BT solution.

I am currently dealing with Deepak Lakhani for the leased line who gave us an 'offer price' on a 30MB deal. This of course was based on a quick sale (pressure sell) which I totally understand - we all want the business right?

However, due to false promises with our ISDN2 lines with switch board system, I am left paying out for two premises needlessly, with no installation date (although promised a date within 24 hours of confirming the payment of £9,400) and failed to have any successful call backs from any of the BT Local Business team. This has understandably made me think again about using BT as our communications provider and has left me no alternative but to risk our communication needs to another company - not through choice but because we need solution and know where we stand. BT have not catered for these needs. Kevin Wright has been dealing with our voice ISDN2 lines, but since having the money and got the sale - have we heard from him since - no.

With respect if you want any business from me BT I would sort out all of my current issues with yourself - which is costing me time and money, then I will consider you as our internet provider. I would also recommend you look at all of the issues we have had with BT just by looking at our account.

Regards

James Street

 

[ccsleedsltd]

I'm saddened to say that is representative BT LB through and through. They are only licensed sales agents for BT (Wholesale mostly) and once the sale is in the bag are well known in giving scant regard to the actual delivery.

It would pay you to ensure the company you choose has a direct relationship with the carrier/wholesale division of the underlying telco and operates their own network, as ultimately if you call up to complain for example of poor routing, if the agent is merely a reseller of someone else (think BT LB, small IT house reselling Virgin DIA) all they can do is handle the call and call someone else up, delaying actually getting the underlying issue attended to.

Cheers, Pete