Let’s be honest — no one likes paying more for broadband.
And on paper, leased lines aren’t cheap. You see £300/month next to a £50 fibre package and it’s easy to assume it’s a luxury. Something only large enterprises need. But here’s the truth most people miss:
If your team depends on being online, downtime is far more expensive than you think!
It doesn’t always show up in invoices or spreadsheets, but it affects everything — from productivity and customer service to missed sales and staff frustration. The question isn’t “how much does a leased line cost?” — it’s “what does it save you?”
What Actually Counts as Downtime?
Downtime isn’t just a full-blown outage where your internet cuts off completely. In reality, it’s much more subtle — and a lot more common.
- Unstable video calls
- Poor VoIP quality
- Slow-loading files
- Systems that freeze mid-task
- Teams waiting for something — anything — to load
Most businesses write this off as “just how the internet is.” But it’s not. And if it’s happening regularly, you’re already losing time.
These small interruptions erode your day. They chip away at focus and flow. They lead to duplicated work, missed updates, and conversations that need repeating. One person struggling with a slow system is manageable. Ten people? That’s a productivity bottleneck.
The Real Cost of a Slow or Flaky Connection
This is what it looks like in practice:
- A sales rep drops off a client call because their softphone crashed. That deal? Gone.
- The support desk misses a critical SLA because their cloud ticketing system wouldn’t load fast enough.
- Your team sits around while Teams buffers for the third time today — so they stop using video altogether.
And if you’re using cloud software, VoIP, Microsoft 365, or remote desktops — which most modern businesses are — these issues don’t just slow you down. They disrupt your ability to work at all.
You also need to think about how these moments affect your team. Frustration builds. Morale dips. People stop raising issues because they assume nothing can be done. It becomes normalised.
Leased Line Costs vs Downtime Costs
We get it — the leased line cost in the UK ranges anywhere from £200 to £400+ per month, depending on location and bandwidth. It’s not nothing.
But let’s say your business has 15 employees. If even 30 minutes a week is wasted per person due to slow or unstable internet, that’s 7.5 hours a week in lost productivity. Across a year? That’s nearly 400 hours.
Now factor in missed sales, frustrated customers, and time spent chasing IT support. Suddenly, that “expensive” leased line looks like a smart investment.
Add to that the predictability. Leased line costs are fixed. Downtime costs aren’t. They show up when you can least afford them, and they don’t always show up in one place. They hide in missed opportunities and delayed timelines.
SLAs: What You’re Really Paying For
When something breaks — and eventually, something always does — you want to know it’ll get fixed. Fast.
That’s why leased lines come with SLAs (Service Level Agreements). You’ll typically get:
- A guaranteed fix time (often within 4 working hours)
- A dedicated telecoms support team
- Compensation if those targets aren’t met
- Prioritised fault resolution over shared broadband users
By contrast? Standard fibre broadband offers “best effort” support. Which might mean 48–72 hours of waiting with no updates and no urgency.
That’s not acceptable if your business depends on being online.
With a leased line, your internet is treated like infrastructure — not a utility. That means consistent speeds, consistent support, and the knowledge that if something goes wrong, you’re not at the back of the queue.
Real Example: Why We Use a 1GB Leased Line at Carden IT
We don’t just recommend leased lines. We use one ourselves — a 1Gbps dedicated leased line at our office.
Why?
- VoIP and Microsoft Teams for internal and external comms
- Cloud-based platforms and client portals
- Remote management tools and live monitoring
We never have to second-guess our connection. It’s stable. It’s fast. It just works — day in, day out. No one on our team complains about slow internet. Multiple team members can be using VoIP, video calling, uploading, and downloading at the same time. And that’s exactly how it should be.
And here’s the thing: once it’s in place, you stop thinking about it. It fades into the background, and your team just gets on with their work. That reliability becomes part of your culture. It enables growth instead of hindering it.
Who Actually Needs a Leased Line? (And Who Doesn’t)
A leased line isn’t for everyone. But if any of these sound familiar, it’s worth considering:
- You have more than 10 employees sharing the connection
- You run VoIP, cloud apps, or remote desktops
- You have remote staff relying on consistent access
- You can’t afford to be offline — even for a few hours
- You’re scaling and want internet that can scale with you
The truth is, fibre broadband is good. But it’s not built for business-critical tasks under load. A leased line is.
If your team uses the internet as their main tool, that connection needs to be dependable. It needs to handle spikes, growth, and the shift to hybrid working without complaint.
Conclusion: Cheap Internet Isn’t Always a Saving
You wouldn’t skimp on power for your office. Or settle for water that only works 90% of the day.
So why treat your internet — the thing your entire operation runs on — like it doesn’t matter?
A leased line might look more expensive at first. But when you account for downtime, staff productivity, missed opportunities, and client experience, it often turns out to be the more affordable choice in the long run.
If you’re comparing options and trying to prevent business downtime, we’re happy to walk you through what a leased line would actually cost (and save) in your specific setup. Give us a call to get started.
Let’s take the guesswork out of it.
