Leased line at home: when you need one

Openreach describes its Ethernet products as high-bandwidth, permanently connected point-to-point connections. Point-to-point means a single connection running between two fixed places rather than a branch of a shared network: Openreach's main Ethernet Access Direct (EAD) product is described as a point-to-point data connection between sites, and its planned EAD2.0 as a connection from an Openreach exchange to the customer's premises.

That circuit is the wholesale building block; what you buy from a provider is the finished internet service, a leased line or DIA. Three words on providers' pages sum up the difference from ordinary broadband.

Both usually run over fibre, so the difference isn't the cable. Virgin Media Business puts it plainly: FTTP (fibre to the premises, the technical name for full fibre), like most broadband, shares bandwidth with other users, which can affect performance at peak times, while a leased line often uses similar fibre but gives you your own dedicated connection.

Upload is where full fibre networks differ most. ISPreview reported on 19 August 2026 that Openreach's full fibre is still largely GPON, where each trunk line's capacity is shared between several premises and the fastest home tier offers up to 1.8Gbps download with 120Mbps upload; our guide to GPON and XGS-PON explains how newer equipment changes this.

Some other full fibre networks sell the same speed both ways to homes. Gigaclear says its full fibre has symmetrical upload and download speeds; Hyperoptic advertises equally fast upload and download on its 150Mb to 1Gb packages, depending on location; and Community Fibre's package cards give one average figure for download and upload. That isn't a leased line, because the capacity is still shared, but it closes the upload gap. See Gigaclear broadband, Hyperoptic broadband and Community Fibre broadband for where they sell.

It depends on the provider, and you'll need to ask. Here is what the sources say.

• Openreach's page listing Ethernet providers is headed "Ethernet for your home and business". Openreach says more than 300 Ethernet service providers sell on its network, and the names it lists include BT, Sky, Vodafone and Zen, which also sell home broadband, and Exponential-E, Gamma and Neos Networks.
• Providers aim leased lines at businesses. Vodafone says DIA is ideal for organisations with 10+ employees. Virgin Media Business says its leased lines are designed primarily for business use, and that its plans are available in Virgin Fibre areas only.
• We found no public Openreach page that sets out whether a home address can order Ethernet, or on what terms.

So treat a leased line at home as a business purchase made at a home address, and ask the provider directly whether it supplies residential premises. Our home or business broadband guide explains the different protections home and business customers get.

You can't order Ethernet from Openreach yourself; you go through a provider, as our guide to what Openreach is and how it works explains.

Openreach sets out four steps for Ethernet. Your provider manages the order throughout; Openreach does the survey, design and physical work.

Because a leased line is built to one premises, the route may not exist yet. Virgin Media Business says a leased line sometimes means digging up roads, and that Local Authority permission is needed before any digging.

That extra work can carry an excess construction charge (ECC). Openreach's ECC fact sheet (14 May 2026) says ECCs can apply to Ethernet orders and that a survey assesses them; typical causes include new ducts, poles and new ways into the building. For its EAD product, Openreach builds a fixed-fee ECC into the connection price that covers an initial amount of work, and asks the provider to approve anything beyond it. The ECC is billed to your provider, so how much reaches you depends on your provider's quote and contract.

We don't quote amounts because they depend on the job; our guide to excess construction charges explains how they're quoted, agreed and challenged, including how Openreach's EAD threshold works.

Openreach's wholesale site for providers says its average Ethernet provision time in the UK is four weeks. Its footnote puts the average at 22 working days, based on orders from 1 October to 31 December 2025, and it excludes wayleaves, customer delays and a further category Openreach labels RO2 (checked 25 October 2026).

So if your line needs a wayleave across a neighbour's land, or you can't give access when engineers need it, those delays sit outside the average. Difficult jobs can take much longer: Virgin Media Business's own setup guide (undated) says that because it needs Local Authority permission before digging, an installation can take up to 60 working days, and advises ordering early.

Dates can also move after they are set. Openreach and providers have an agreed process called "deemed consent", which lets Openreach change the "customer committed date" (the delivery date given for the order) for certain Ethernet products in defined situations. Ask your provider which date it has committed to, and how it will tell you if it changes.

Keep your existing broadband running until the new line is live and tested.

We don't quote leased line prices: they're business prices, they depend on the bandwidth and the survey, and they change. What the sources do make clear is the shape of the cost.

• It costs more than home broadband. ISPreview notes that a dedicated business line such as a leased line is often significantly more expensive, reflecting the higher cost of offering a truly uncontended service.
• The contracts are long. Vodafone's DIA plans are shown on 60-month terms, and it mentions 36-month and 60-month contracts. BT's small print bases its BTnet starting price on a 60-month term. For comparison, Gigaclear's home full fibre packages have an 18-month minimum term.
• Set-up costs vary. Vodafone says it charges no connection fee on its 36 and 60-month contracts, subject to site survey; Virgin Media Business says installation fees may apply. Construction charges, covered above, can come on top.
• Prices are quoted without VAT. Vodafone's monthly prices are shown excluding VAT, and Virgin Media Business says its prices are subject to 20% VAT, so check whether a quote includes it. If you're self-employed or a company director, our guide to broadband as a business cost covers whose name the contract should be in and how VAT works.

A five-year commitment matters more at home than in an office, because life changes. Before you sign, ask what you would pay to leave early, and what happens to the contract if you move house.

No source we found sets a speed or number of users at which a household "needs" a leased line, so this test is our own, built from how Openreach and providers describe what a leased line does. The more questions you answer yes to, the stronger the case.

1. Do you need fast upload, not just fast download? A leased line is symmetric. If what you send (large files to clients, backups to the cloud, a live stream) matters as much as what you receive, upload is the figure to check. Our guide to download and upload speed explains how to tell which one your work depends on. If upload is the only reason, first check whether a symmetric full fibre plan reaches your address.
2. Would slowdowns at busy times cost you money? Providers sell leased lines on not being shared: BT says that with a dedicated line there's no sharing and performance is consistent even at peak times. Would a slower evening interrupt paid work, or just be annoying?
3. Is your use business-critical in the way providers describe? Vodafone lists hosting websites, online sales, VoIP (internet phone calls), cloud applications and large file transfers as what DIA is for, and says it is ideal for organisations with 10 or more employees. If that sounds like your working day, a leased line is designed for you.
4. Are you ready for a business order? That means a survey, possibly building work and permission from landowners or the council, a construction charge that depends on the job, a price well above home broadband, and a business contract that can run for three or five years.
5. Have you ruled out full fibre? Check what full fibre is available at your address, including plans with upload as fast as download. If full fibre doesn't reach you yet, Openreach's FTTP on Demand (see below) may be another route where it's available.

Example (hypothetical): someone on video calls and email who sometimes uploads a presentation answers no to most of these. A small studio sending large video files to clients all day and hosting its own systems answers yes to most, and is the kind of customer providers describe.

If the test points away from a leased line, the next step is to check what full fibre is available at your address, and whether any plan there uploads as fast as it downloads. You can compare deals at your postcode, browse fibre broadband deals, or look through our broadband providers to see who sells over which network. Our comparison is run by a partner and shows home broadband deals; it doesn't include leased lines, and we don't switch you or arrange an installation ourselves.

If standard full fibre isn't available to order at your address yet, Openreach's FTTP on Demand lets a provider order full fibre built to one premises, where that product itself is available to order. Our guide on what to do when full fibre isn't in your street covers it alongside community schemes and other routes.

If your worry is the connection going down rather than its speed, see using two connections with a dual-WAN router; if you need to reach a server at home from outside, read CGNAT, static IP and IPv6 explained first.

If you decide to get a quote, these questions keep the order clear. Get the answers in writing.

• Do you supply leased lines to residential addresses, and will the contract be in my name or my business's?
• Which network will the line run over?
• Can you request a full site survey before I commit, so we know about wayleaves and any building work?
• If the survey finds construction is needed, will you give me a written quote before any work is agreed, and can I walk away if I decline it?
• What bandwidth am I ordering, how much can the line carry, and how do I raise it later?
• Is the service managed, with your router, or wires only, with mine?
• What delivery date have you committed to, and how will you tell me if it changes?
• What is the minimum term, is a shorter one available, and what would I pay to leave early or if I move?
• Does the quote include VAT, installation and any construction charges?