The Heath Technical Park Runcorn,

Leased Lines

Internet to you.

For clients wanting increased bandwidth and dedicated internet access or site-to-site WAN links we can provide a wide range of high availability leased line services. Even at speeds of 100Mb/s these can be surprisingly cost effective, however they can be provided up to 1000Mb/s (IGbt/s).

However a leased Line connection can be provided with a bearer speed and available speed, in other words a service can be provisioned with a maximum available connection speed of 100Mbit/s but then can be restricted to operate at 10 or 20Mbit/s, the user then only pays for the bandwidth speed. In the future if additional bandwidth is needed the bandwidth can be increased up to the 100Mbit/s maximum for an additional monthly fee.

A leased line is used deliver a symmetric telecommunications line connecting two or more locations, one of which may be the internet, in exchange for a monthly rent (hence the term lease). It is sometimes known as a “private circuit” in the UK. Unlike traditional PSTN lines it does not have a telephone number, each side of the line being permanently connected to the other. Leased lines can be used for telephone, data or Internet services.

Typically, leased lines are used by businesses to connect geographically distant offices. A leased line is always active. An Internet leased line is a premium internet connectivity product, delivered over fiber normally, which is dedicated and provides uncontended, symmetrical speeds, full-duplex. It is also known as an Ethernet leased line, DIA line, data circuit or private circuit.

Lease Lines can also be delivered via an EFM connection or Ethernet First Mile. EFM takes a number of copper pairs (usually delivered as analogue lines) and bonds them together to run data services. Speed will be a function of distance from the exchange like ADSL, but in this case is guaranteed and not up to.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ethernet First Mile, also known as EFM or Ethernet over Copper (EoC) is the latest Ethernet technology delivering high quality, synchronous internet leased line services delivered over copper wires and is a direct and more cost effective delivery mechanism than Fibre-Optic. The official and technical name for this standard is known as IEEE Std 802.3ah-2004. It is also more commonly known as an ethernet leased line, DIA line, data circuit or private circuit. EFM takes a number of copper pairs (usually delivered as analogue lines) and bonds them together to run data services. The speed of the line will be a function of distance from the exchange much like ADSL, but in this case the speed is guaranteed and not up to.

EFM is a single technology type, so there is only one version of EFM available if we follow the standard explained above with various speed variations. EFM can be used as a point to point service or as a direct internet service.

Yes, INS Ltd offers the same up-time SLA and guarantees as our Fibre-Optic based leased lines. We do not differentiate between any of our Ethernet services. The delivery of QoS and other advanced features you would normally expect from a fibre-optic based leased line is also the same. For point to point and internet services the likelihood is that the total circuit provision will be a mixture of EFM ( delivered at the customer premises) changing to fibre at the exchange or Point of Presence and then on to the internet , or reverting back to EFM at another exchange or POP for a point to point service to the 2nd location.

EFM varies in available speeds. In the UK EFM is available up to a maximum of 20mb, but as technology improves, expected speeds will go beyond 40mb. A key advantage with an INS Ltd EFM service is we have the ability to offer fixed speed guarantees instead of “up to” speeds which is quite common in the marketplace. Just like a fibre-optic internet leased line, EFM is uncontended