5 Questions to Ask Any Leased Line Service Provider Before Signing in India
The leased line market in India has expanded as business connectivity requirements have outgrown shared broadband options and the cost of dedicated fibre has declined. Choosing the right leased line service provider, however, requires going beyond advertised bandwidth and price comparisons. According to TRAI Telecom Subscription Data Report 2023 the number of enterprise leased line connections in India grew by 22 percent in 2022-2023, with the growth concentrated in tier-2 cities where demand previously went unmet by available infrastructure. Increased market options make provider evaluation more important, not less.
1. What is the committed information rate on this connection? This is the most important technical question to ask any leased line service provider in India. The committed information rate (CIR) is the bandwidth the provider contractually guarantees at all times. A leased line with 100 Mbps headline bandwidth and a 1:1 CIR provides 100 Mbps guaranteed. A leased line with a lower CIR than its headline bandwidth provides guaranteed performance only at the CIR level, with burst capability to the headline speed when infrastructure permits.
2. What does the SLA uptime commitment cover and what are the remedies? Leased line service providers in India quote SLA uptime percentages ranging from 99 to 99.99 percent. The difference between 99 percent and 99.9 percent uptime is approximately 44 hours of potential annual downtime. Ask what the contractual remedies are for SLA failures: whether there is service credit, how credits are calculated, and whether there is any cap on total annual credit. An SLA without meaningful contractual remedies is a target, not a commitment.
3. What is the mean time to repair for fault resolution? The MTTR commitment determines how quickly the leased line service provider will restore connectivity after a fault. Business connectivity outages have direct operational and financial impact. A provider with a 4-hour MTTR commitment and a 24x7 support operation provides substantially better operational insurance than one with a next-business-day resolution commitment.
4. What is the route diversity of the last-mile fibre? The route between your premises and the provider's network core is the segment most vulnerable to physical disruption. A single-route last-mile fibre connection fails completely when that specific route is cut or damaged. Route-diverse connections use multiple physical paths, reducing single-point-of-failure risk at the segment most commonly responsible for leased line outages.
5. What transition support is provided during installation? The installation period for a leased line connection, including civil works, fibre laying, and equipment configuration, can take 4 to 12 weeks in Indian cities. Ask what the leased line service provider provides in terms of installation timeline commitment, progress communication, and temporary connectivity support during the installation period if your existing connection must be maintained.
The Takeaway
The leased line service provider that serves your business effectively is the one that answers all five questions with specific, contractually supported answers rather than general assurances. Providers who cannot or will not answer these questions in detail before the contract is signed are providing a weaker service commitment than those who can.