TL;DR. A leased line is a dedicated fibre internet circuit that isn't shared with anyone else. You get the same speed up and down, an SLA with a 4–6 hour fix time, and guaranteed bandwidth. Expect £180–£500/month for 100Mbps–1Gbps in 2026, a 45–90 working-day lead time, and a 3-year term. For most small offices under 20 users, full-fibre FTTP is cheaper and fine. If you host services, rely on hosted phones, or run a contact centre, a leased line pays for itself the first time everyone else's broadband falls over.

What "leased" actually means

A leased line is a physical fibre circuit that runs from your premises back to the provider's network — uncontended, meaning no other customer shares the capacity. Compare that to FTTP or FTTC, where the fibre from the street cabinet to the exchange is shared with every other home and business on the cabinet. The Openreach Ethernet products overview covers the underlying circuits that most UK leased-line providers resell.

What you actually get

  • Symmetric speed — 100/100Mbps, 200/200Mbps, 500/500Mbps, 1/1Gbps. Upload = download, not the 70/20 ratio of FTTC.
  • Uncontended bandwidth — you get the full speed all the time, not "up to".
  • Service level agreement — typical 99.9% or 99.95% availability with a 4–6 hour fix time. Credits if they miss.
  • Static public IP block — usually a /29 (5 usable IPs) for hosting services, VPNs and remote access.
  • Managed router — the provider ships, configures and supports the CPE (Cisco, Fortinet, Draytek).

UK leased-line pricing in 2026

Indicative bands from Openreach-based wholesale (Gamma, Neos, BT Wholesale, Virgin Business, CityFibre):

  • 100Mbps / 1Gbps bearer — £180–£230 per month, 36-month term
  • 200Mbps / 1Gbps bearer — £220–£300 per month
  • 500Mbps / 1Gbps bearer — £280–£380 per month
  • 1Gbps / 1Gbps full bearer — £330–£500 per month
  • 10Gbps — quoted per-site, usually £700+ per month

A "1Gbps bearer" means the physical port is 1Gbps but you pay for a capped speed on it — handy because upgrading from 100Mbps to 500Mbps later is a billing change, not another 60-day dig. Installation is usually free if you're close to existing fibre; "excess construction charges" apply where Openreach has to dig a new duct, and those can reach £5,000–£20,000.

Lead times and what slows them down

Plan on 45–90 working days from order to live service. The three common delays are:

  • Wayleave — the landlord's permission to dig on their land or drill into the building. Get this started on day one.
  • Construction — if new fibre needs pulling into a business park or over private land, expect extra weeks.
  • Traffic management — Council permits in town centres can add 20+ working days.

Leased line vs FTTP vs SoGEA — how to choose

For a 5–10 person office in Horsham or Crawley running Microsoft 365, Teams and a bit of cloud accounting, an 900Mbps full-fibre FTTP circuit at £40–£70/month is plenty. Add a 4G or secondary FTTP as failover for about £30/month and you're well covered.

A leased line starts making sense when:

  • You host public-facing services (website, app, VPN) on-premise
  • You run 20+ concurrent hosted-voice calls and can't tolerate jitter
  • Your revenue depends on being online (e-commerce, contact centre, live video)
  • Upload speed matters — CAD, video production, secure file transfer
  • You need a written fix-time SLA for insurance, tender or compliance reasons

Resilience: one line is still one line

A leased line is more reliable than broadband but not immune. Diggers hit ducts. Power fails at exchanges. If you genuinely can't afford downtime, buy diversity — a second circuit from a different carrier on a different route, ideally entering the building from a different wall. Cheaper option: a 5G failover CPE on a separate SIM, which gets you back online in seconds for Teams, email and card payments.

Buying checklist

  • Ask for the wholesale carrier (Openreach, CityFibre, Virgin, Neos) — they drive the fix times
  • Check the circuit type: EAD, EoFTTC, or full-fibre bearer
  • Confirm the SLA fix time and credit scheme in the contract
  • Ask about ECCs (excess construction charges) after the site survey
  • Static IP count — /29 is standard, /28 available for £10–£20 more
  • Monitoring and proactive fault raising, not "tell us when it's down"

We order, install, manage and monitor business internet and leased lines for SMEs across West Sussex — including failover and firewall configuration. Ask for a site check and we'll pull the availability and quote for your postcode.

FAQ

How much does a leased line cost in the UK?

For a 1Gbps symmetric leased line in 2026, expect £250–£500 per month on a 3-year term, with free or subsidised installation depending on distance from the nearest Openreach fibre node. 100Mbps products start around £180 per month.

How long does installation take?

Typically 45 to 90 working days. A wayleave — landlord permission to dig or enter the building — can stretch that by another 30 days. Order early.

Is a leased line better than FTTP?

For most offices under 20 people, FTTP at 900Mbps is enough. A leased line gives you symmetric speeds, a 4–6 hour fix SLA, and guaranteed bandwidth — worth the premium if you host services, run a contact centre, or can't afford downtime.

Can I keep my existing broadband as a backup?

Yes, and you should. A router with dual WAN ports failing over to the FTTP line keeps Teams, email and card payments working when the leased line is down for maintenance.

Syntek Solutions Team

We order and manage leased lines, FTTP and 5G failover for West Sussex SMEs. Ask for a postcode check — we'll pull the wholesale options and quote by return.