In order to identify the original provider it may be worth posting the circuit numbers in case folk on here have tools to perform a lookup, or if the ID format conforms to a particular provider's standard scheme?

Personally I am with Exponential-e but they will not be the cheapest option. Very good service though.

As alluded above, leased lines or Ethernet Access Direct (EAD) based services for internet access are quite different to broadband. I’ll list out some of the major differences :

1. They are dedicated circuits, meaning that a dedicated fibre (in reality multiple fibres, including spares) are connected from your premises to the nearest provider Point of Presence (POP). Although there are dozens of communications providers that you can contract with to buy such a service, typically the “tails” the parts of the circuit from your premises to the local POP are provided by a handful of large telcos: Openreach/BTW, Virgin, Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, SSE (now Neos).

2. They are typically uncontended, meaning you don’t share with anyone and the service bandwidth is all there, there is no concept of peak or committed/minimal data rates. You get what it says on the tin.

3. They are symmetrical bandwidth wise. Openreach provided FTTP is very much an asymmetric service by comparison.

4. They are designed for business critical service - therefore you will find there are typically strict contractual service levels for performance and fault resolution backed off by service credits.

5. They can be bought as a managed service, with a provider managed router (in addition to the circuit NTU e.g. those Adva’s) or as “wires only” - meaning that you will have to configure the network protocols, such as VLANs and address and routing.

6. They are expensive! Even though prices have dropped significantly in the last 5-10 years (due to much cheaper wholesale prices) they are still much more expensive than FTTP

7. There could be excess construction costs ranging from hundreds of pounds to (and I kid you not) several hundred thousand pounds - the latter if you are very remote and the infrastructure has to be built. In the centre of major towns and cities there is usually quite a large metropolitan level fibre infrastructure already in place by many of the providers mentioned - so there could be zero ECCs or in a lot of cases they are absorbed by the provider if you sign up for a few years!

8. Constriction time could be anything from a few weeks (fibre is already there like you!) to several months. FTTPoD can be anything up to a year, sometimes more by comparison.

In reply to a post by fidoedidoe:

Thanks for the suggestion JPM. I've reached out to Spitfire explaining my situation and inviting them to contact me. .

I’m currently with Focus Group (using Virtual1 wholesale) in London on an Openreach provided tail. Service has been impeccable. They are pretty price savvy.

A couple of sites which will give you instant indicative quotes:

leasedline.co.uk # comparison site (apparently)
linebroker.co.uk # brand name for X.COMM

The fact that you already have a fibre termination won't make much difference. It'll mean you will probably get the service installed quicker, and since there's no digging required, the provider may offer to sell you it on a 1-year term rather than a 3-year term (no construction costs to amortize)

But still expect to pay £300+ per month.

In reply to a post by candlerb:

linebroker.co.uk # brand name for X.COMM

Its a bit of sneak the name etc of that site. Not really a "broker" at all just an internal comparison of what they'd sell you with various combo's of provider circuits.

They are definitely not the cheapest either.

[Edit- typo]

Edited by Pheasant (Tue 03-Aug-21 21:44:28)

In reply to a post by candlerb:

leasedline.co.uk # comparison site (apparently)

Used them too. They just harvest your details out to a "panel" of their providers. Its a bit hit and miss I found, you don't actually get any comparison of prices, but suppliers ringing you. It's like a lead generating service.

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

They are defiantly not the cheapest either.

Their defiance is an admirable quality

Touché. I'll lay that one at the feet of my (non-trusty) spell checker 😂

Many thanks for this information/insight - so useful, clears up much of the uncertainty I had.