Dedicated Leased Lines – Low Cost Data Network Option

What is a Dedicated Leased Line?

Dedicated Leased Lines aka Private Lines or Point to Point Circuits, are still a viable, low cost, data network solution. A Dedicated Leased Line is basically a secure, private, dedicated, data network connection between two points over a telecom carriers backbone (not over the Internet). The advantages of Dedicated Leased Lines are many, including high QoS, inherently secure (no encryption, VPN needed), very reliable (typically 99.999% up-time with SLA’s), with no fluctuations in bandwidth speeds (dedicated circuit). Leased Line circuits have been around since the 1970’s and have been the workhorse of secure, high speed, data networks ever since.

MPLS Networks

Many people predicted the death of Dedicated Leased Lines in recent years with the advent of MPLS VPN networks and its use as a secure data networking solution. But to the contrary, Dedicated Leased Lines are not dead and Dedicated Leased Line costs have come down quite a bit in the last 5 years. Leased Line pricing is still mostly based on the distance between the two locations, so usually the shorter the distance, the less expensive the circuit will be (but not always). There are also a few options for flat rate pricing when the circuits are located within a metro or intrastate. In many cases it is more cost effective to use a Leased Line circuit to connect two locations than IP VPN or MPLS, see here.

Bandwidth Flexibility

Leased Lines also now come in a variety of higher bandwidth speeds utilizing Ethernet Private Lines, which offers more flexibility than traditional fixed T1 Leased Line or Point to Point DS3. Applications for Dedicated Leased Lines are many. Some include voice-phones, video conferencing, secure data backup, Internet access (when connected to POP), and data transfer. So next time you need a good data networking solution, don’t forget to price Dedicated Leased Line Circuits.