2mb Leased Line – Why Many Businesses Decided To Get One
A 2MB leased line is a point-to-point dedicated data circuit that offers a speed of 2Mbit/s upstream and 2Mbit/s downstream.
The Old Standard?
2MB is the lowest speed offered by most leased line providers.
For many years 2MB was the most popular speed for a leased line. However, as leased line prices fell through the floor, many companies switched to 10MB and 100MB connections rather than take a price cut. However 2MB is still a popular speed for small offices, retail premises, and offices where higher speeds are not available at sensible prices.
In May 2013, the UK telecoms regulator OFCOM found that the average download speed of a consumer DSL connection was 5.9Mbit/s. So most employees are used to download speeds far faster than a 2MB leased line can provide.
Why choose a 2MB leased line?
Why would people choose a 2MB leased line rather than a 2MB ADSL connection? There are several reasons:
Faster Upstream speed
A leased line has a higher upload speed than standard ADSL. A 2MB leased line offers an upstream speed of 2Mbit/s. DSL connections offer an upstream speed of 0.8Mbps on average, according to research published by OFCOM in August 2013. That's less than half the upstream bandwidth offered by a 2Mb leased line.
No Contention
A leased line is dedicated solely to your company's use. Most ADSL connections are contended. That means that the bandwidth between your local telephone exchange and your ISP is shared between multiple subscribers. At peak times, the connection speed drops below the headline rate.
Unmetered Connection
Most 2MB leased lines are unlimited. In contrast, most ADSL connections are metered. If you download or upload too much, you might get stung by extra charges.
Reliability
Most leased lines come with Service Level Agreements guaranteeing particular levels of uptime. Most ADSL connections do not. Should a physical fault occur on your line, a leased line is likely to get fixed faster than an ADSL connection, as UK carriers typically offer faster target fix times on leased line faults than on ADSL circuit ones.
