VAISHUMAHAVIJAY

A leased line connects two locations for private voice and/or data telecommunication service. Not a dedicated cable, a leased line is actually a reserved circuit between two points. Leased lines can span short or long distances. They maintain a single open circuit at all times, as opposed to traditional telephone services that reuse the same lines for many different conversations through a process called "switching."

Leased lines most commonly are rented by businesses to connect branch offices, because these lines guarantee bandwidth for network traffic. So-called T1 leased lines are common and offer the same data rate as symmetric DSL (1.544 Mbps). Individuals can theoretically also rent leased lines for high-speed Internet access, but their high cost (often more than $1000 USD per month) deters most. Fractional T1 lines, starting at 128 Kbps, reduce this cost somewhat and can be found in some apartment buildings and hotels.