Telappliant
Connectivity Guide · 6 May 2026

Business broadband vs leased line: 2026 buyer's guide

When FTTP is enough, when a leased line pays back and how to size bandwidth properly.

By the Telappliant team

Leased linesBroadbandBuyer's guide
Side-by-side comparison of business broadband and leased-line performance

FTTP has closed the speed gap with leased lines on paper. On resilience, symmetry and SLAs the gap is as wide as ever - and getting the choice wrong is expensive either way.

Where FTTP wins

  • Fast to install and low monthly cost
  • Gigabit downstream in most UK postcodes
  • Ideal for small offices, home workers and secondary sites

Where a leased line pays back

  • Symmetric bandwidth reserved 24/7 for your business
  • 4-6 hour fix SLAs with financial credits
  • Predictable jitter and latency for voice and video
  • Underpins hosted phone systems, contact centres and cloud ERP

How to size bandwidth

A useful rule of thumb: 2-3 Mbps symmetric per concurrent knowledge worker for voice, video and SaaS, plus headroom for backup and updates. Anything under 100 Mbps symmetric is now under-provisioned for a growing hybrid workforce.

Next steps

Frequently asked questions

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