A leased line is a private internet connection that isn't shared with anyone else (uncontended), with the same upload and download speed and a guaranteed fix time. Business broadband (SoGEA or full fibre) is shared and usually slower to upload. With Indigo, SoGEA costs about £32 a month, full fibre £32–£50 and leased lines from £200, with installs of 30–90 working days. Choose a leased line when downtime or slow uploads cost you more than the difference.
What is a leased line?
A leased line, sometimes called dedicated internet access or Ethernet, is a connection reserved for your business alone. It runs from your building to the provider's network without being shared with the neighbours, so the speed you pay for is the speed you get, at 9am on a Monday or 3pm on a Friday. Upload and download speeds are the same (symmetrical), and the provider commits to a fix time if it fails.
There are three main types, and the one available depends on your building:
| Type | Speed | Guaranteed fix time |
|---|---|---|
| Fibre Ethernet | Up to 10Gbps | 5 hours |
| Ethernet over FTTC (EoFTTC) | Up to 80Mbps | 7 hours |
| Ethernet First Mile (EFM) | Up to 20Mbps (over copper pairs) | 7 hours |
Fibre Ethernet is what most people mean by a leased line. EoFTTC and EFM are lower-cost options that give you a business-grade service level agreement (SLA) where full fibre Ethernet would be expensive to build.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a leased line?
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Dedicated to you: no sharing with other businesses, so speeds hold up at busy times | Cost: from about £200 a month with Indigo, against £32–£50 for business broadband |
| Same speed both ways: uploads are as fast as downloads, which matters for cloud backups, video calls and large files | Install time: typically 30–90 working days, and longer if new fibre has to be dug to your building |
| Guaranteed fix time: 5 hours on fibre Ethernet (7 hours on EFM and EoFTTC), instead of "best efforts" | Longer contracts: usually longer than broadband, because the provider builds fibre to your door |
| Scales with you: the speed can often be raised on the same fibre without a new install | Price depends on location: a building far from the nearest fibre point can cost much more, and some rural sites can't get one at an affordable price |
| Monitored for you: with Indigo, every connection is watched 24/7 from Glasgow and faults are chased for you | One line is still one line: a digger through the cable takes it down, so you still need a 4G/5G or broadband backup |
The short version: a leased line is worth it when a slow or failed connection costs you more than about £150 a month, which usually means around 20 or more people, heavy uploads, a venue that takes payments, or a head office that other sites connect to. Below that, full fibre with a backup router is usually the better buy.
How does a leased line compare with broadband, 4G/5G and satellite?
| SoGEA (broadband, no phone line) | Full fibre (FTTP) | Leased line (fibre Ethernet) | 4G / 5G | Satellite | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical speed | Up to 80Mbps down, 20Mbps up, depending on distance from the cabinet | Up to around 1Gbps down, with a much lower upload | 10Mbps to 10Gbps, chosen to suit | Varies with signal and how busy the mast is | Varies by service and location |
| Same speed both ways? | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Shared (contended)? | Yes | Yes | No, dedicated to you | Yes, with other mobile users | Yes |
| Fix time | Best efforts | Best efforts | 5 hours (7 hours on EFM and EoFTTC) | No fix guarantee on the network | No fix guarantee |
| Install time | Typically 1–3 weeks | Typically 2–4 weeks, longer if external work is needed | Typically 30–90 working days | Usually 2–3 working days | Depends on kit delivery and a site survey; mounting usually takes a few hours |
| Indigo price | About £32 a month | £32–£50 a month, depending on speed | From £200 a month, depending on area | Quoted per site | Quoted per site |
| Best for | Small offices without full fibre | Small and medium offices | Head offices, venues, businesses that can't afford slowdowns | Site cabins, pop-ups, backup | Remote sites with poor mobile coverage |
The gap between £50 and £200 a month looks large. What you're paying for is the bottom four rows of that table: nobody else's traffic, the same upload as download, and someone contractually obliged to fix it within hours.
When is business broadband enough?
For a lot of small businesses, full fibre is excellent value. If you have fewer than 20 or so people, mostly working in Microsoft 365 and Teams, and an hour's outage would be annoying rather than expensive, full fibre with a 4G or 5G backup router is often the right answer. The backup matters more than the headline speed: it covers the "best efforts" repair time, which is the real weakness of broadband.
Full fibre is now available at 71% of residential properties in Scotland, up nine percentage points in a year (Ofcom, November 2025), and business parks are often better served. Where it isn't available yet, SoGEA is the standard choice. It's also the replacement for older broadband that needs a phone line, which has to move before the analogue network closes on 31 January 2027.
When do you need a leased line?
Four things usually tip the balance.
Uploads. Broadband is built for downloading. If you back up to the cloud, send large drawings or video, host systems people connect to, or have a busy office all on Teams video at once, it's the upload that runs out. A leased line gives you the same capacity both ways.
Consistency. A shared connection slows down when everyone else is busy. A venue running card terminals, ticket scanners and guest WiFi on a match or event night can't have that. Neither can a contact centre.
The cost of downtime. Work it out properly. Example: a 45-person engineering consultancy in Glasgow, assuming an average staff cost of £30 an hour. If the connection fails and half the team can't work, one lost day costs about £5,400 in wages alone, before missed deadlines. A best-efforts broadband fault can easily take a day or two to fix. A leased line with a 5-hour fix, plus a 4G/5G backup, turns that into a short slowdown. The extra £150 or so a month is cheap insurance at that size. For a five-person office, the same sum might not add up.
Many sites. Businesses with several offices or venues often put a leased line at the head office and broadband with backup at the branches, tied together with SD-WAN (secure, managed connections between sites). Wonderworld Group's 10 sites and Falkirk Football Club's stadium are both examples of connectivity Indigo manages as one estate.
What about 4G, 5G and satellite?
These aren't second-class options. They solve different problems. 4G or 5G can usually get a site cabin, compound or pop-up online in 2–3 working days, instead of the weeks or months a fixed line takes, and then stays on as automatic backup when the fixed line arrives. That's the standard pattern for construction sites.
Coverage is the catch in Scotland. Ofcom reports that Scotland has the lowest 4G geographic coverage of the UK nations (Ofcom, November 2025), so a Highlands or island site may not get a usable signal. That's where satellite comes in. Ofcom counted more than 15,000 Starlink connections in Scotland in 2025, up from 11,000 the year before, a sign of how many rural premises are using low-earth-orbit satellite where fibre and mobile don't reach. For a remote renewables site or rural office, satellite can be the main line or the backup.
How Indigo does this. Indigo supplies SoGEA, full fibre, leased lines, 4G/5G, satellite and SD-WAN (Cato Networks), monitors every connection 24/7 from Glasgow, and chases the network provider when there's a fault. Leased lines come with a 5-hour fix on fibre Ethernet and 7 hours on EFM and EoFTTC. Tell us your address and we'll confirm what's available and the price within 2 working days. Check what's available at your address →
What to do next
- Check your current contract end date and what your connection actually delivers, especially upload speed at busy times.
- Work out what an hour and a day offline costs you, using staff costs and lost sales.
- Check availability at your address. Leased line prices depend mainly on how far your building is from fibre, so get a real quote rather than a guide price.
- Order early. Leased lines take typically 30–90 working days. If you're moving office or opening a site, order as soon as the lease is signed, and use 4G/5G to bridge the gap.
- Add backup whichever line you choose: a 4G/5G router or a second line.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a leased line and business broadband?
Business broadband, including full fibre, is shared with other users and is usually much slower to upload than download, with best-efforts repairs. A leased line is dedicated to your business, has the same speed in both directions and comes with a guaranteed fix time. With Indigo, broadband costs £32–£50 a month and leased lines start from £200, depending on area.
How much does a leased line cost in Scotland?
With Indigo, leased lines start from £200 a month. The price depends mainly on your area: how far your premises are from the nearest fibre point and whether new fibre has to be laid. City-centre and business park addresses in the Central Belt are often cheaper to connect than rural sites. We confirm availability and the exact price within 2 working days.
How long does a leased line take to install?
Typically 30 to 90 working days. It depends on whether fibre already reaches your building and whether civil works or wayleaves (landlord permissions) are needed. If you need to be online sooner, a 4G or 5G connection can usually be live in 2–3 working days and stays on as backup once the leased line arrives.
Is full fibre good enough instead of a leased line?
For many small offices, yes. Full fibre is fast and good value, from £32 to £50 a month with Indigo. It's shared and has no guaranteed fix time, though, so pair it with a 4G or 5G backup. Choose a leased line if you need fast uploads, consistent speed at busy times, or fixes within hours.
Do we need a phone line for business broadband?
No. SoGEA and full fibre don't need an analogue phone line, and older broadband that does (ADSL, and fibre broadband with a landline) has to move before the analogue network closes on 31 January 2027. Phone calls then run over the broadband using a cloud phone system.
Sources: Ofcom, Connected Nations: Nations report 2025, 19 November 2025 (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/coverage-and-speeds/nations-report-2025) · Ofcom, Connected Nations Scotland Report 2025, 19 November 2025 (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/siteassets/resources/documents/research-and-data/multi-sector/infrastructure-research/connected-nations-2025/connected-nations-2025-scotland-report.pdf) · ISPreview, Openreach confirm post-January 2027 measures for UK analogue phone switch-off, 24 September 2026 (https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/09/openreach-confirm-post-january-2027-measures-for-uk-analogue-phone-switch-off.html) · BT Business, How quickly can I get Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) installed?, accessed 28 September 2026 (https://business.bt.com/help/article/broadband-and-internet/fibre-to-the-premises-fttp/how-quickly-can-i-get-fibre-to-the-premises-fttp-installed/) · Connection Technologies, SoGEA broadband: UK business guide 2026, updated 13 July 2026 (https://connection-technologies.co.uk/blog/sogea-broadband-uk-guide) · Beaming, How long does a broadband installation take? (https://www.beaming.co.uk/knowledge-base/long-broadband-installation-take/) · Starconnect UK, Starlink for business (https://www.starconnect.uk/services/starlink-for-business/)
Related: Business connectivity · Construction site connectivity · Remote site connectivity for renewables · Guest WiFi and venue networks · VoIP vs traditional phone systems
What's available at your address?
Full fibre, SoGEA or a leased line: we'll tell you what you can get and the monthly price within 2 working days.