As fibre connections become more common across the UK, you might be considering the benefits of taking advantage of some of the latest super-fast speeds and other benefits that Fibre can offer. Any business that’s looking at upgrading their lines to the latest connectivity solutions, may need to consider how they can make the change according to the needs of their VoIP systems. Often, this means examining the crucial differences between Fibre leased lines and fibre broadband.
Introducing the World of Fibre
Before you can make the decision between fibre broadband or leased lines for VoIP, you’ll need a better understanding of what both options entail. Fibre broadband is deployed using “Fibre-to-the-Cabinet” technology – or the green boxes that are located at the end of your street. Basically, fibre is sent to those boxes, then moved along the copper wires that enter your building.
On the other hand, fibre leased lines are for “door-to-door” connectivity to your local telephone exchange, which means that you don’t share your connection with other users, like you would using typical broadband. What’s more, fibre leased lines are symmetrical. This refers to uploading and downloading speeds – symmetrical leased lines will offer the same upload and download speed, while asymmetrical broadband offers a slower upload than download speed. Since VoIP is all about your upload speed, this is an important factor to consider.
Comparing Speeds with Leased Lines and Broadband
When it comes to improving speeds, leased lines often leave broadband trailing in the dust. Fibre broadband can be the fastest broadband solution available on the market, offering speeds that extend up to 80Mb. However, leased lines are on a completely different level. The average leased line can offer 100Mb, 1Gb, or even up to 10Gb in some cases!
Of course, the significant speed increase and benefits of fibre leased lines come at a cost. Typically, businesses will have to pay a lot more on leased lines than broadband, as the lines are leased annually, and can be very expensive. Though fibre broadband is much cheaper, if you’re considering leased lines and have an ISDN30 connection there’s still a chance that you can save some money.
What can Leased Lines offer that Fibre Broadband can’t?
- 4 hour fix time SLA (service level agreement)
- Synchronous upload (same upload as download speed)
- No copper wire used (100% fibre optic, therefore less susceptible to faults)
- Dedicated bandwidth – not shared with anyone else
Fibre Leased Lines are Ideal for VoIP
The exceptional upload speeds of fibre leased lines make them perfect for VoIP lines. If you’re switching away from traditional ISDN lines into VoIP, then you might be able to save enough money to facilitate your investment.
Because these solutions are so expensive, the most important thing to consider is just how important a good connection is to your business. Organisations that consider their internet connection to be paramount to their business will be able to pay the premium for fibre leased lines, because the reliability of the service and the unmatched speed can help them to be more cost-effective in the long-run. Of course, if you’re on a budget, fibre broadband can still earn the moniker of “superfast” for businesses that need a reliable connection.
