Leased line and internet line

[girish_p1]

Hi,

Is there any difference between a leased line and an internet line ?

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Yes.

Generally, a leased line is a telco line you've leased for some purpose. It might support data only, voice only or both. If may also be a line to your ISP, but it doesn't have to be.

A leased line, as a term, also tends to be more about the physical nature of the link. Such as leasing a T1.

Generally, an Internet line is one that connects to your ISP. I.e. you'll obtain Internet connectivity though it.

An Internet line, as a term, tends to denote the function or purpose of the line.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

in addition to Joseph's post, the term 'leased line' used to imply that you have a symmetrical line where both transmit and receive speeds are the same, and where the bandwidth you 'bought' is always available. That as opposed to an 'Internet' connection, where your ISP tells you that you have x MB upload and x MB download speed. That however is based on the principle of statistical multiplexing: the MBs stated are usually only available when there is a predefined number of users onlne and active. It is like telling you that you can drive from Philadelphia to Washington DC in 2 hours and 30 minutes. If you try that at 8AM, those 2 hours and 30 minutes are not achievable. Unless you have a 'leased line', a highway just for yourself...

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Georg mentions that leased lines imply symmetrical bandwidth.  That's generally true of the physical line, but where your lease line is used to connect to a "private cloud" (e.g. frame-relay, ATM, MPLS), your cloud provider often has imposed logical bandwidth limits, which can be less than the physical line allows and also be non-symmetrical.

[Leo Laohoo]

The other main difference is SLA or Service Level Agreement.
Because leased line is more expensive than a DSL line, there is some sort of "madness" when one faults a line to the telco.
With an internet line, SLA is just there for the sake of formality.