> private circuits

A private telecommunications circuit is used to connect two or more premises to give a required quality of service, or to save costs. They are classed as “private” because they comprise resources that are exclusively allocated to their owner.

Private circuits are also known as leased lines because they are usually rented (ie leased) from telecommunication service providers such as BT.

It should be noted that private circuits are not always rented from telecommunication service providers. They can also be implemented using privately owned facilities such as cable or (more likely) radio connections. These are discussed elsewhere on the Premitel website.

Most private circuits are now usually justified on the basis of that an organisation requires an essential data communications connection.

A few years ago it was common for organisations to have private circuits installed solely to avoid high long distance phone call charges between two or more sites. The relatively low cost of public telephone calls (ie 1 pence per minute) makes it unlikely that a private circuit could now be justified solely to carry an organisation’s voice telephony traffic.

In fact voice telephony traffic is now usually digitised and becomes part of the overall data communications traffic mix with very little additional capacity required for telephone traffic. This means that telephony traffic between an organisation’s sites is usually carried on private circuits that have been installed to meet a data communications requirement.

Although telephony private circuits are still available, most private circuits that are rented from telecommunication service providers are internet-based data communication circuits. These would have a specific service profile in terms of speed, quality of service and circuit termination (eg ethernet).

Charging varies according to the service profile and usually consists of a connection charge and a fixed monthly service charge with a minimum term contract of at least one year. There is not usually any usage based charges.

As with lines and calls services there are many service providers that can offer leased line private circuits. Customers are therefore in the fortunate position of having a choice of service providers.

There are also may different types of data communications private circuit and care is required to ensure that the right service is chosen.

Please get in touch using our Contact Form if you need assistance in choosing a private circuit for your business and with choosing the right service provider.

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