In computer networks and telecommunications, a dedicated line is a communications cable dedicated to a specific application, in contrast with a shared resource such as the telephone network or the Internet.

In practice, such services may not be provided by a single, discrete, end-to-end cable, but they do provide guarantees of constant bandwidth availability and near-constant latency, properties that cannot be guaranteed for more public systems. Such properties add a considerable premium to the price charged.

As more general-purpose systems have improved, dedicated lines have been steadily replaced by intranets and the public Internet, but they are still useful for time-critical, high-bandwidth applications such as video transmission.

In telephony, a private line is a service that involves dedicated circuits, private switching arrangements, and/or predefined transmission paths, whether virtual or physical, which provide communications between specific locations.

Note: Among subscribers to the public switched telephone network(s), the term "private line" is often used to mean a one-party switched access line.