DIA vs Ethernet

What is DIA?

Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) is a private, uncontended internet connection between your premises and your internet service provider (ISP). Unlike business broadband, which is a shared service, DIA gives you bandwidth reserved for your organisation alone. That means your network performance stays consistent, even during peak periods.

Learn more about DIA vs business broadband

With symmetrical upload and download speeds, DIA provides reliable connectivity for real-time cloud, VoIP and SaaS applications. For example, Neos Networks Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) offers upload/download speeds you can scale from 10Mbps to 10Gbps.

What is Ethernet?

Ethernet is a wired networking technology that connects devices to local area networks (LANs) for fast, reliable data transfer. But in this context, we’re talking about high capacity connectivity services like Neos Networks Business Ethernet.

Business Ethernet services give you private, fixed-bandwidth connectivity between your sites or between sites and data centres or cloud services. Options include point-to-point, point-to-multipoint or any-to-any connectivity. And for network service providers and large enterprises, Ethernet network-to-network interfaces (NNIs) allow you to connect to other networks and extend your reach.

Like DIA, Ethernet services are uncontended, with guaranteed bandwidth and symmetrical upload/download speed. In fact, DIA is often delivered over an Ethernet access network.

The main difference is that DIA is just a private connection to the internet. In contrast, Business Ethernet provides high-bandwidth site-to-site, site-to-cloud or network-to-network connectivity without routing traffic across the public internet.

DIA vs Ethernet: key differences

Here’s a summary of how DIA services differ from Business Ethernet:

Which is faster: DIA or Ethernet?

DIA offers bandwidths from 10Mbps to 10Gbps. Ethernet can go much higher: most managed Business Ethernet services can scale to 100Gbps, depending on the provider. Higher Ethernet rates exist but are mainly used in specialist carrier and data centre environments.

Both DIA and Ethernet give you dedicated bandwidth reserved for your business, so you get the full rate you purchase. And both offer symmetrical upload/download speeds.

However, end-to-end performance differs. Ethernet provides private Layer 2 connectivity between two endpoints (site-to-site or network-to-network). Traffic remains within the provider’s network unless you add an internet connection. By contrast, DIA is a direct connection to the public internet, so real-world throughput can be affected by internet routing and congestion.

Similarly, Ethernet usually delivers more consistently low latency and jitter because traffic stays on the provider’s private network. DIA latency is often stable on the access network, but it can vary depending on internet traffic.

In short, DIA is great for high-speed internet access up to 10Gbps, though actual speeds may vary slightly beyond your circuit. Ethernet is better when you need a private network with higher capacities and more consistently low latency.

How resilient are DIA and Ethernet?

Both DIA and Ethernet are highly resilient. Unlike the “best efforts” support offered by shared business broadband services, both typically include SLAs for uptime and fault repair times.

Trusted providers offer a resilient core network for both DIA and Ethernet. For example, Neos Networks DIA is supported by a meshed MPLS backbone with multiple upstream transit and peering partners to ensure service continuity. Ethernet by default stays on the provider’s controlled core network.

Beyond the core, DIA resilience may vary with the access tail. For example, FTTP/FTTC-based tails support lower bandwidths and depend on shared access infrastructure. However, if delivered over full fibre Ethernet tails, DIA can support last-mile resilience and diversity options, such as RO2.

Ethernet also supports diverse fibre routes, separacy and RO2 dual‑path engineering by design. In addition, Ethernet offers flexible topologies (point-to-point, point-to-multipoint, etc), so building in resilience at scale is easier, especially for multisite networks.

So DIA offers good resilience per site and reliable internet access for cloud and SaaS traffic. Ethernet is better for consistently resilient site-to-site connectivity across multiple locations.

How secure are DIA and Ethernet?

Both DIA and Ethernet offer stronger security than business broadband because they run over dedicated connections rather than shared public paths. But they differ in their exposure to attacks and risk.

DIA is a private circuit but connects to the public internet, so protection ultimately depends on your security stack: firewalls, traffic filtering and DDoS protection. That's why at Neos Networks we offer tiered DDoS Mitigation for DIA to suit your risk profile.

With Ethernet, traffic stays on the provider’s private domain (unless you design an internet breakout), reducing the external attack surface and exposure to threats. Security can be further hardened by using virtual local area networks (VLANs) to isolate sensitive traffic.

So DIA delivers secure internet access, as long as you have the right security controls in place. Ethernet offers stronger inherent isolation, giving you more controlled end-to-end security across every connected site.

How much do DIA and Ethernet cost?

As DIA and Ethernet use the same underlying fibre infrastructure, they often cost roughly the same at standard bandwidths. In the UK, prices typically start from a few hundred pounds a month, depending on the provider, bandwidth and configuration.

If new fibre is needed to reach your premises, both services may incur Excess Construction Charges (ECCs). And for certain Ethernet configurations, such as point-to-point (P2P) links, costs can rise significantly with the distance between two sites. That can make Ethernet more expensive than DIA for equivalent bandwidths.

In short, DIA and Ethernet costs vary widely based on bandwidth, distance, location and topology. You’ll need to weigh which option best fits your needs and budget.

Should you choose DIA or Ethernet for multi-site organisations?

Dedicated Internet Access can be a good fit for smaller multi-site organisations if most of your business traffic goes to SaaS, cloud services or the public internet. With DIA, you get guaranteed, symmetrical upload and download bandwidth up to 10Gbps and avoid routing everything back through a central HQ or data centre.

However, if you’re a larger organisation and most of your traffic flows between your sites or data centres, Business Ethernet may be the better choice. It gives you predictable low latency, higher capacity options up to 100Gbps and a private Layer 2 environment to build secure any-to-any connectivity, such as VPLS, to protect highly sensitive data.

A third option is hybrid: use Ethernet for your core network and DIA for your branch offices. If you want maximum flexibility, SD‑WAN can help route traffic intelligently across DIA, Ethernet and other access types while providing efficient direct access to cloud services.

DIA vs Ethernet: which is right for your business?

So, whether Dedicated Internet Access or Business Ethernet is right for your organisation depends on several factors, including:

1. Organisation size: Are you a small business with one or two sites or a large, multi-site organisation?
2. Traffic flows: Does your traffic mainly go to the internet and cloud services or between your sites?
3. Bandwidth needs: Is 10Gbps enough, or do you need to scale to 100Gbps+?
4. Performance demands: Can your applications tolerate internet variations in latency and jitter?
5. Data sensitivity: Do you handle highly sensitive data that needs to stay off the public internet?
6. Resilience needs: Do you need simple access-level resilience or end-to-end diversity across multiple sites?
7. Scaling plans: Will you grow by adding per-site DIA links, or do you need a more flexible, multi-site topology?
8. Cost constraints: For the network architecture, performance and scalability you require, does DIA or Ethernet better fit your budget?

Choose DIA if you:

Choose Business Ethernet if you:

Not sure which is right for you?

At Neos Networks, we offer a range of high capacity, low latency business connectivity across our UK-wide network, including DIA, Business Ethernet, SD-WAN, Optical Wavelengths and Dark Fibre. If you want to discuss the best connectivity options for your business, talk to one of our experts.

We’ll be happy to make connectivity work for you.