DSL bonding

Bonded ADSL much cheaper than a leased line

30 November 2012

Logo for Sharedband

In areas where superfast broadband is not available, telecom suppliers often point businesses in need of reliable high-speed Internet access towards leased lines, particularly in areas where superfast broadband is not available. However, leased lines can be very expensive and bonded ADSL can now provide a much cheaper alternative.

A leased line is a dedicated connection, which (unlike a typical broadband connection) is not shared by any other user. Leased lines have, at face value, a number of benefits, notably:

  • guaranteed high-speed Internet access (with speeds up to 1Gbps, or above)
  • unlimited data usage (although many businesses – particularly smaller ones – may not need this)
  • the same bandwidth available in both directions
  • no contention. As a leased line is not shared, it delivers a dedicated guaranteed bandwidth
  • service level agreements.

The major downside of a leased line is cost. The initial installation cost of a leased line (typically thousands of pounds) generally varies according to the distance between the ISP’s Point of Presence (POP) and the physical location of the customer and the nature of the terrain between these two points. In order to avoid putting off customers, most leased line providers amortize all or part of the initial installation cost over the contract period (and typically specify minimum contract periods of several years). For example, BT offers free connection for leased lines with three and five year contracts.

Despite leased lines being available from a number of telecom providers (such as BT, Virgin and TalkTalk Business), the monthly cost of a leased line is substantially greater than an ADSL line. Monthly costs vary significantly according to user location and speed required, and can typically vary between £400 and £2000 per month. The lowest monthly costs are associated with the slowest leased line speeds (2Mbps and 10Mbps). It is possible to choose leased lines offering fast speeds (for example, 100Mbps or even 1Gbps and above).

Given the cost of a leased line and the long minimum contract periods, we advise caution before signing up to a leased line. Careful consideration should be given to alternatives, particularly bonded ADSL. We have been particularly impressed by the Sharedband service, which we have comprehensively reviewed here and here. Sharedband effectively amalgamates the downlink (and uplink) bandwidth of two or more ADSL lines together (to substantially increase Internet speed) while improving service reliability (since service is not lost if a single line goes down). Maximum resilience is achieved through the use of ADSL lines from different suppliers.

As an example, with ADSL2 lines each offering a relatively modest 6Mbps (downlink) and 1Mbps (uplink), Sharedband would be able to deliver nearly 12Mbps (downlink) and 2Mbps (uplink) with two ADSL lines, and nearly 24Mbps (downlink) and 4Mbps (uplink) with four ADSL lines. Even with four ADSL lines, the cost would be cheaper than a leased line and without a long minimum time commitment.

For more information about the Sharedband service, or to order the service, please view the Sharedband website.

Introduction to the Increase Broadband Speed website and blog

1 February 2012

Photo representative of increasing broadband speed

If you’re struggling with your broadband connection, or you would simply like to get the very best speeds and reliability from your broadband line, then the Increase Broadband Speed website and blog are for you. We bring together, in one place, proven techniques that can substantially increase your broadband speeds,  and we provide recommendations for the best broadband equipment and services.

Without a decent broadband connection, you risk getting left behind. We are becoming more reliant on broadband and the Internet. We’re increasingly doing our shopping online. Our children are using the Internet more for their school work. Our mobile phones can now connect to home broadband connection to avoid running up costly mobile bills. Services such as BBC’s iPlayer are increasingly being used to supplement conventional TV viewing and radio listening. New devices, such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle, offer easy access to information and applications via a home broadband connection. 

While an increasing number of people have the option of superfast broadband services, many are still reliant on ADSL2+ and older ADSL technology. 

After helping many people in our local area with their broadband services, Alastair Brydon and I decided to set up this website and blog to help people more broadly. We live in rural Cambridgeshire and have personally suffered the frustrations of poor broadband speeds. By improving our own speeds, and through helping others, we have discovered that it is possible to substantially improve broadband speeds by using a number of techniques. Our telecommunications backgrounds have helped us to gauge which techniques make the biggest difference. We’ve found that these techniques work successfully time and time again, and most are really easy to implement. For many broadband users, we have been able to double broadband connection and throughput speeds. 

We hope that you find the site useful. We have tried to make its structure clear so that you can navigate the site successfully. If you are looking for a good place to start, then please visit the following page, which summarises a number of our recommendations.

Increase Broadband Speed guide

If you find the information and advice useful, we would love to hear from you. You can email us at info@increasebroadbandspeed.co.uk, as we love to know that we’ve made a difference!