There are different connectivity solutions in the market, and it is challenging to decide which one is better for your business. Two famous connections are DSL and fibre leased lines. To help you choose the right one for your business, we have put together a comparison between these two products in this article. We hope that you have enough information to make the right decision by the time you finish reading this article. So, let’s dive right in:

What Is A DSL?

A DSL or digital subscriber line is a type of internet that is mainly used at the domestic level. It is similar to old dial-up internet and delivered through the phone wall jack, but it has a different frequency. With this connection, you can use the internet and telephone at the same time. It is a suitable connection for households all across the UK, but it is not enough to fulfill the requirements of businesses. 

What Is A Leased Line?    

A leased line is an uncontended internet line that runs through a private fibre-optic cable from your business premises to the network point of presence or exchange. It provides a site-to-site connection that is solely designed for your business. This way, you can get a reliable and fast connectivity solution, but it is expensive to install. 

Which One Should You Choose?  

Now look into whether a leased line or a DSL is suitable for your business:

Speed

A DSL connection is delivered by using copper wires. These wires might have been installed for decades, and now they are degraded and affect internet connection performance. On the other hand, fibre leased lines most often use new fibre optic cable delivering a high speed and reliability. Moreover, a DSL connection has distance limitations, while a dedicated internet line does not have the same distance limitations. 

In addition, a traditional DSL connection does not have synchronous speeds, which means you do not get the same upload speed as you are getting on download. It can be a problem when you are using cloud services or advanced applications like VoIP. However, you can get synchronous upload and download speeds with a dedicated internet connection.

Installation   

Because the leased line uses fibre optic cables, the installation cost is considerably high, and it also takes a long time to install. The price depends on the construction required to install fibre optic cables. On the other hand, a DSL connection is delivered through the existing phone wall jack, which is less expensive and takes 14 days to install.  

Bandwidth     

A fibre leased line is usually installed with 1Gbps bearers. These bearers represent the speed that the internet is capable of delivering. Now a new DSL service is known as G.Fast also delivers 1Gbps speed, but you have to be within a short distance to the cabinet. And it is available in only a few areas in the UK. Furthermore, a DSL connection is shared between multiple users, so the service speed is variable. But a dedicated connection ensures a fixed bandwidth and speed also does not slow down during the peak usage hours.

Reliability  

A DSL connection is delivered through copper wires that cause a great impact on the speed and reliability of the connection. However, business leased line use fibre optic cables, and they always come with robust Service Level Agreements (SLAs). These SLAs guarantee a fixed time of up to 7 hours. It means that if there is an issue with your internet connection, it will be fixed within the shortest possible time. Thus, we can say that the leased line Uk is more reliable than the DSL.

Wrapping Up

Ultimately, we can say that a dedicated internet line is better than DSL in terms of performance, but it does not mean that it is right for you. It all depends on your business requirements and your budget to select the right connectivity solution.