Networking & Infrastructure
Leased line vs business broadband (FTTP/SoGEA): which does your office need?
How a leased line compares with FTTP and SoGEA broadband on speed, upload, contention, fix times, lead times and cost, with Hertfordshire and London notes.
By Dig IT SolutionsUpdated 8 September 20266 min read
Short answer
A leased line is a dedicated, symmetrical connection with guaranteed bandwidth and a fix-time service level, costing several times more than broadband and taking months to install. FTTP offers high downloads with lower uploads, shared capacity and best-efforts repair, within weeks. Most offices under 30 people suit FTTP with failover. Larger teams or hosted systems justify a leased line.
Every office needs an internet connection, and the choice comes down to two families: a dedicated leased line, or business-grade broadband delivered over Openreach full fibre (FTTP) or, where fibre has not arrived, SoGEA. Sales teams for each will tell you the other is inadequate. The truth depends on how many people you have, what they do online and what an outage costs. This guide compares the options on the things that matter and gives a practical way to decide, with the availability and lead-time realities in Hertfordshire and London.
The three options
Leased line. A fibre connection dedicated to your premises, with the same speed for upload and download, no sharing with other customers, and a service level agreement that commits the provider to a fix time (commonly measured in hours) and usually to an availability target. Sold on a bearer, typically 100Mbps or 1Gbps, with a committed speed that can be raised later.
FTTP business broadband. Full fibre from the exchange to the premises, over the Openreach network or an alternative network such as CityFibre where present. High download speeds, commonly 500Mbps to 1Gbps and rising, with uploads a fraction of that, typically in the region of 100Mbps on most business tiers. Capacity is shared, and faults are repaired on a best-efforts basis with business-grade care levels available for a premium.
SoGEA. Fibre to the street cabinet, copper to the building, without a phone line. Maximum speeds around 80Mbps down and 20Mbps up, dependent on distance from the cabinet. This is what replaces the old FTTC-and-phone-line combination as the PSTN is switched off, and it is the option for premises FTTP has not reached.
Comparison
| Leased line | FTTP business broadband | SoGEA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Download | 100Mbps to 10Gbps, as ordered | Typically 500Mbps to 1Gbps+ | Up to around 80Mbps |
| Upload | Same as download | Much lower, often around 100Mbps | Up to around 20Mbps |
| Contention | None: dedicated | Shared capacity | Shared capacity |
| Fault repair | Contractual fix time, often within hours | Best efforts, enhanced care available | Best efforts, enhanced care available |
| Typical lead time | Six to twelve weeks, longer with civil works | Two to four weeks where available | One to three weeks |
| Installation cost | Can be significant, plus any excess construction charges | Usually low or waived on contract | Usually low or waived on contract |
| Monthly cost | Several times FTTP | Modest | Lowest |
| Contract | Commonly 12 to 36 months | Commonly 12 to 24 months | Commonly 12 to 24 months |
| Static IP | Standard | Available | Available |
| Best for | Larger teams, heavy upload, hosted systems, multi-site hubs | Most offices of up to 30 to 50 people | Premises without FTTP, small teams, failover |
Lead times are typical ranges rather than promises, and they vary by provider, exchange and the state of the ducting to your building. Always confirm for the specific address.
What actually matters for an office
Upload. This is the number most businesses ignore and the one that bites. Cloud backups, SharePoint synchronisation, sending large files, Teams video for every attendee and VoIP all use upload. FTTP's asymmetry means a 900Mbps download comes with perhaps 100Mbps upload, shared across the office. For a 15-person firm that is fine. For 40 people on video calls with a nightly cloud backup, it is tight.
Latency and packet loss. Voice and video quality depend on these, not on headline speed. FTTP and leased lines both perform well here. SoGEA is acceptable for a small office but has less headroom. The faster internet does not fix a slow network article explains why the office network often matters more than the line.
Fix time. When broadband fails, the repair can take days. When a leased line fails, the provider is contractually obliged to fix it within hours, with service credits if it does not. If a day without internet costs more than the annual difference in price, the fix time alone can justify the leased line. If not, a failover line on broadband achieves most of the resilience for far less.
Hosted systems and inbound traffic. If you host anything others connect to (a server other sites use, a remote desktop environment, cameras reviewed from elsewhere), symmetrical bandwidth and a static IP with a service level are worth having. Dig IT's multi-depot design for Mr Plant Hire, with site-to-site VPNs between depots, depends on the hub having reliable, symmetrical capacity.
Multi-site. A leased line at the main site and FTTP with failover at branches is a common and sensible pattern. See opening a second office.
Availability in Hertfordshire and London
Full fibre has spread quickly but unevenly. Town centres and newer developments in Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, Hertford, Ware, Harlow and Bishop's Stortford are largely covered by Openreach FTTP, often with an alternative network as well. Industrial estates, business parks and older commercial buildings are more mixed, and a surprising number still depend on SoGEA. In London, dense areas have wide FTTP and leased line coverage, but individual buildings can still be difficult where the landlord controls the risers or the ducting is full.
Alternative networks (CityFibre, Community Fibre, Hyperoptic and others) cover parts of Hertfordshire and much of London, sometimes with symmetrical products that sit between FTTP and a leased line on price and performance. They are worth a quote where present, though support arrangements and lead times vary by provider.
Two practical rules. First, check the specific address, not the postcode, before signing a lease: the office move checklist puts this at 12 weeks out for a reason. Second, ask leased line suppliers for a site survey and a firm quote including any excess construction charges before committing, because a line that is "available" can still need new duct that adds months and thousands.
Which does your office need?
A reasonable decision path:
- Under 20 people, cloud-based, no hosted systems, and an outage is an inconvenience rather than a crisis: FTTP, with a 4G/5G or second-provider failover. Add voice prioritisation on the firewall if you run VoIP.
- 20 to 50 people, heavy Teams and cloud use, growing: FTTP with failover is usually still adequate, but measure upload utilisation. If it is regularly near the limit, or if you host anything, move to a leased line, ordering the larger bearer.
- 50 people or more, anything hosted on site, or a multi-site hub: leased line, with FTTP as the failover.
- Downtime is genuinely expensive (trading, client-facing operations, a business that stops without internet) regardless of size: leased line for the fix-time commitment, plus failover.
- No FTTP at the premises: SoGEA now, with 4G/5G failover, and a leased line quote if the business is large enough to justify the cost and lead time.
Whatever you choose, the line is only as good as the firewall, switches and Wi-Fi behind it. A gigabit connection into a consumer router and three old access points delivers a slow office. The signs your network needs an upgrade guide covers the rest of the chain.
Do not forget the PSTN switch-off
Analogue phone lines and the broadband products that depend on them are being withdrawn, with Ofcom's guidance on the move to digital at ofcom.org.uk. If your office still has an analogue line for the phone system, alarm or card machine, the connectivity decision and the move to VoIP should be made together, ahead of the January 2027 deadline.
What to do next
If you are choosing a connection for a new office, or your current one is the suspect in a slow-network complaint, Dig IT can check availability for the address, measure what your office actually uses and recommend the right option as part of the IT infrastructure and networking service. Talk to an engineer with the address and your headcount.