Cheapest Student Broadband? £15 for 9 months!

TheTallOne_2

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The Best Deal: (As long as you have fibre)
Virgin Media's 9 Month 'L' (10Mbps) for possibly £15 (from 9am 21/09/2010 until 24/09/2010, otherwise £100 more)
Be aware that there could be a £20 'Activation Fee' and a £23.50 disconnection fee, but the 'Activation Fee' is waived upon representation of a £11 NUS Extra card. It may be possible to get out of paying these amounts. Regardless, the price still totals to £49.50 which rivals the BT Line deals. __________________________________________________________
Broadband is pretty much vital in all student homes but I want to create a thread so that we can as a group try and find the cheapest broadband for a 9 or 10 month student house.

There are some difficulties in finding this:
BT Line Reconnection: I hate this. In the place I'm living in September, the BT line has to be reconnected and at the moment BT is telling me that I will have to pay for this - at a cost of £127.99. Can anyone find ways to reduce this cost?

I've finally found a way: Sky set up Talk + Line Rental for £11/month plus £39 connection charge. Result!
Long term contracts: 12, 18, 24 month contracts are costly as we will end up paying for unnecessary months that we will never use. If you select a 12 month contract, you must factor the ENTIRE length of the contract into the total price, or the early termination fee after 9 months.
Line Rental: Normally costs £11.50 a month or more but O2 do it for £9.50/month (if you also have O2 Broadband) and BT have a Line Rental Saver averaging out at £9.49/month. MSE also links to Primus who seem to do it at £8.99/month.
The Broadband:There are some great deals out there: speed, download limits and traffic shaping are some of the major obstacles out there. Initial set up costs also exist.
Disconnection Charges: These sneaky little charges for leaving increase the price a bit at the end of the contract.

Useful things:
Cashback: Probably could save you over £50 over the whole year - Quidco, TopCashback and other sites will be of great use into lowering the cost.
Virgin Media: Removes the need for BT line reconnection and BT line rental. Great if you will live in a cabled area.

So, it would be great if the MSE community could as a group try and find the cheapest way to get a broadband connection for student houses, depending on the various circumstances.

I'll list some of the best deals I've found so far:

The upper price in a cabled street:
Virgin Media 'L' Broadband 9 Months (+Cashback) - Up to 10Mbps, Unlimited Downloads, Traffic Management.
£20 x 9 (9 month broadband contract)
£0 installation fee (discounted until 31/10/10)
£?? (activation fee, apparently £20, discounted to £0 when you produce an NUS Extra card, costs £11)
£165 (Virgin Media limited availability cashback via Quidco)
Total: £15.00 (£26.00 if you need to show NUS card for activation fee)
**From 21/09/2010 at 9am to 24/09/2010**

Virgin Media 'L' Broadband 9 Months (+Cashback) - Up to 10Mbps, Unlimited Downloads, Traffic Management.
£20 x 9 (9 month broadband contract)
£0 installation fee (discounted until 31/10/10)
£?? (activation fee, apparently £20, discounted to £0 when you produce an NUS Extra card, costs £11)
£65 (Virgin Media cashback via Quidco)
Total: £115.00 (£126.00 if you need to show NUS card for activation fee)

Note there could also be a £23.50 disconnection fee.

If you can't beat this price for a basic phone line broadband package and you live on a cabled street then this is who you should turn to.

14 September 2010: Just sent my order through VM and they were offering free installation. No mention of the activation fee yet, but with the Quidco cashback you can potentially get broadband for £115.00. I still have my NUS Extra card, just in case.

Broadband + Line Rental (No Reconnection Charge):
Plusnet Value Broadband 12 Month Contract (+Through Consumer Choices) and BT Line Rental Saver (+Cashback) - Up to 20Mbps, 10GB/Month Download, Free Weekend Calls to UK Landlines, Unlimited downloads between Midnight and 8am. Requires 2 calls on BT Phone Line per month or 6 per quarter or additional £1.50/month or £4.50/quarter will be added to bill
£0 x 4 (4 free months)
£6.49 x 8 (12 month contract)
£113.88 (BT Line Rental Saver, 12 months)
£0 (Free Activation)
Minus:
£25 (BT Home Broadband 'Calls and Lines' Cashback with Quidco)
Total: £140.80 (Beaten by O2 if you already with them)

You need to be in a Plusnet value area. Don't think you can get cashback with this as you are signing up with a deal offered by Consumer Choices. But you could always try. (£28 for just Broadband through Quidco.)

O2 Basics Broadband 12 Month Contract (+Cashback) and BT Line Rental Saver (+Cashback) - Up to 20Mbps, 20GB/Month Download, Free Weekend Calls to UK Landlines, Requires O2 Sim (either monthly contract or pay £10 every 3 months). Requires 2 calls on BT Phone Line per month or 6 per quarter or additional £1.50/month or £4.50/quarter will be added to bill
£0 x 3 (3 free months)
£8 x 9 (12 month contract)
£113.88 (BT Line Rental Saver, 12 months)
£10 x 4 (£10 every 3 months on O2 PAYG, alternatively O2 contract)
Minus:
£50 (O2 Home Broadband Cashback with Quidco)
£25 (BT Home Broadband 'Calls and Lines' Cashback with Quidco)
Total: £150.88 (£110.88 if already with O2 Mobile)

O2's 3 months free deal only available until the 31st October at the moment. O2 also do 30 day contracts (plus £29.99 connection charge) but then you won't get the 3 months free.

Plusnet Extra Broadband 12 Month Contract (+Through Consumer Choices) and BT Line Rental Saver (+Cashback) - Up to 20Mbps, 60GB/Month Download, Free Weekend Calls to UK Landlines, Unlimited downloads between Midnight and 8am. Requires 2 calls on BT Phone Line per month or 6 per quarter or additional £1.50/month or £4.50/quarter will be added to bill
£0 x 4 (4 free months)
£11.49 x 8 (12 month contract)
£113.88 (BT Line Rental Saver, 12 months)
£0 (Free Activation)
Minus:
£25 (BT Home Broadband 'Calls and Lines' Cashback with Quidco)
Total: £180.80 (Beaten by O2 All Rounder if you already with them)

You need to be in a Plusnet value area. Don't think you can get cashback with this as you are signing up with a deal offered by Consumer Choices. But you could always try. (£28 for just Broadband through Quidco.)

O2 All Rounder Broadband 12 Month Contract (+Cashback) and BT Line Rental Saver (+Cashback) - Up to 20Mbps, Unlimited Downloads, Free Weekend Calls to UK Landlines, Requires O2 Sim (either monthly contract or pay £10 every 3 months). Requires 2 calls on BT Phone Line per month or 6 per quarter or additional £1.50/month or £4.50/quarter will be added to bill
£0 x 3 (3 free months)
£12 x 9 (12 month contract)
£113.88 (BT Line Rental Saver, 12 months)
£10 x 4 (£10 every 3 months on O2 PAYG, alternatively O2 contract)
Minus:
£50 (O2 Home Broadband Cashback with Quidco)
£25 (BT Home Broadband 'Calls and Lines' Cashback with Quidco)
Total: £186.88 (£146.88 if already with O2 Mobile)

Broadband + Line Rental + BT Reconnection Fee
Previous deals on page 2.
Sky Lite Broadband (+Cashback) + Sky Talk with Line Rental - Up to 20Mbps, 2GB/month download limit (£2.50 surcharge for not getting Sky TV)
£2.50 x 12 (12 month broadband contract)
£11 x 12 (12 months line rental)
£39 Line Rental Setup
£10 (Sky cashback)
Total: £191.00 (Note 2GB monthly cap)

O2 Basic Broadband 12 Months (+Cashback) + Sky Talk with Line Rental - Up to 20Mbps, 20GB/Month Downloads (if in O2 'Unbundled' Area), Requires O2 Sim (either monthly contract or pay £10 every 3 months).
£8 x 9 (12 month broadband contract)
£11 x 12 (12 months line rental)
£39 Line Rental Setup
£10 x 4 (O2 PAYG Topup)
£50 (O2 cashback)
Total: £233.00 (£193.00 if you are already with O2).

If you want to have everything with O2 then this is the deal for you:
O2 Basic Broadband 12 Months (+Cashback) + O2 Line Rental - Up to 20Mbps, 20GB/Month Downloads (if in O2 'Unbundled' Area), Requires O2 Sim (either monthly contract or pay £10 every 3 months).
£8 x 9 (12 month broadband contract)
£7.5 x 12 (12 months line rental)
£85 Line Rental Setup
£10 x 4 (O2 PAYG Topup)
£50 (O2 cashback)
Total: £237.00 (£197.00 if you are already with O2).

O2's 3 months free deal only available until the 31st October at the moment. Unlimited downloads available for £36 extra.

Other deals: Eg faster broadband (more than 10Mbps).
Virgin Media XL (up to 20Mb) (+NUS Extra) - Up to 20Mb (without Virgin Media line rental), Traffic Shaping/Restrictions, Unlimited Downloads, 9 month contract, no activation fee, requires NUS Extra card (£11)
£20 x 2 (2 month introductory discount)
£30 x 7 (9 month contact)
£?? activation fee (if there is an activation fee, it is £20, but this is waived upon representation of an £11 NUS Extra card)
£0 connection fee (until 31/10/10)
£23.50 disconnection fee
£65 Quidco Cashback
Total: £208.50 (£185.00 if you avoid VM disconnection charge)

Additional £11 more if you need the NUS card to discount the £20 activation fee, should they still charge for the activation fee.

Can anyone find better deals than these ones? I'd love to see your improvements. Good luck!

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Lokolo

Only thing is, you should had £40 to the second one because you have stated it requires O2 sim or £10 every 3 months, which I don't think you've taken into consideration, you just assume someone has an O2 contract.

Also you can get away with the VM cancellation charge (I asked about it and he said I sounded nice so didn't charge! haha)

atypical

Plusnet is worth considering if you're not in an O2 area. You can get it without a contract if you have your own router (if not you can buy one for as little as £12). But as the free 3 months promotion is still on there's not much point.

Plusnet Extra (+cashback) and BT Line Rental Saver (+cashback) - Up to 20Mbps, 60GB usage (unlimited between midnight-8am), Free Weekend Calls to UK Landlines

£0 x 3 months
£11.49 x 9 months (12 month contract)
£113.88 (BT Line Rental Saver, 12 months)
£25 connection fee

Minus:
£28 via Topcashback/Quidco cashback
£25 (BT Home Broadband 'Calls and Lines' Cashback with Quidco)

Total: £189.29

If you can deal with a 10GB limit it comes in at £144.29.

edit: You can give 30 days notice to O2 prior to your contract ending so you can minus that £7.50.

TheTallOne_2

atypical wrote: »

edit: You can give 30 days notice to O2 prior to your contract ending so you can minus that £7.50.

Cool - I just read the T+C again and I agree with it, but I do have to add on the £40 for O2 Phone Contact

exeterstudent

Nice post :-p

Just to be the devil's advocate on a few of the points you made on your original post:

BT line reconnection - Are you sure they're charging a reconnection fee, not trying to peddle you off with the previous owner's debts? You shouldn't be liable for this - it's either the previous tenants or your Landlord. Let me know and I'll look into it, I'm a law student...

Long term contracts - Most of us will be in a house for say, 9 months, so yes - you're paying for an extra 3 months by going for a 12 month contract.

But, I haven't yet come across a shorter contract that's genuinely advantageous - they just look like they are. For example, take BE broadband as an example - they offer short term contracts.

BE Unlimited 12 month contract

£17.88 * 12 = £214.56
+ BT phone line (£138.48) = £353.02

Be Unlimited 3 month contract

£20.43 * 9 = £245.16
+ BT phone line (£138.48 as BT do it in 12 month periods) = £383.64
PLUS an additional cheeky connection fee!! - £24 = £407.64

- so in this case, anyway, you end up paying more for your short termness - and that's assuming you don't have a break in the contract...

Virgin Media

VM do remove the need for having a BT line BUT any cost benefit is offset by their "plus a virgin phone line for £11.99" per month.

Note with VM you CAN have it WITHOUT a virgin phone line, but this increases the cost of the package overall. Also, don't forget you can do self service setup and save £20.

I've done loads of research into the best student broadband and can honestly recommend VM, even if their pricing structure is a bit cheeky with their forcing you to buy a phone line when you don't need one!

The thing that makes me rage the most about all these broadband providers are the obfuscation of prices - all this "x for the first few months" etc. Orange are the worst for that - you deserve a medal if you can work out how much they charge within a few minutes of looking at their site. It doesn't include details of cashback, but broadbandforstudents.co.uk works out the "real monthly cost" including line rental etc - well worth a look.

Edit: Ps - Plusnet are cheap, but is it really worth risking having a housemate that torrents/iplayer's like there's no tomorrow? With 5 people you'd be amazed how much can be downloaded. Sometimes we hit our daily download cap of about 6gb (the virgin "unlimited"/fair usage) policy) and the internet gets slowed down until the evening - imagine what 5 of you can download in a month

Stubert

With Be* you're always going to pay more for the flexibility of a short term contract.

I was with Be* when we needed internet for like 4 months. Speeds were good, no limits on torrents or download speeds like you get with BT. They provided a good service; avoid BT like the plague.

TheTallOne_2

exeterstudent wrote: »

Nice post :-p

Just to be the devil's advocate on a few of the points you made on your original post:

BT line reconnection - Are you sure they're charging a reconnection fee, not trying to peddle you off with the previous owner's debts? You shouldn't be liable for this - it's either the previous tenants or your Landlord. Let me know and I'll look into it, I'm a law student...

This is the situation that I'm given with phone lines and internet:

You will need to arrange telephone and internet services directly with the supplier. There will be a BT telephone point in the property but this will not be connected. You will need to arrange reconnection.

To arrange for the telephone line to be re-connected, you should dial British Telecom on:
0800 800 150 from any line/mobile phone, or bt.com/reconnect/index.jsp
Please be aware that this may involve a new connection fee of approx. £130.
On leaving the property, the company that supplied your telephone connection should be notified and a final bill obtained.

So basically each year the line gets disconnected. When I input the details of the house on the BT website it says that "As your home doesn't have a phone line that can be reactivated, or needs a new line, we'll send an engineer. The standard connection charge will be added to your first bill for the engineering work in your home or at the telephone exchange." and charges the £127.99 'Phone installation' fee, citing an engineer visit. Can anything be done about it?

VM do remove the need for having a BT line BUT any cost benefit is offset by their "plus a virgin phone line for £11.99" per month.

Note with VM you CAN have it WITHOUT a virgin phone line, but this increases the cost of the package overall. Also, don't forget you can do self service setup and save £20.

The thing that makes me rage the most about all these broadband providers are the obfuscation of prices - all this "x for the first few months" etc. Orange are the worst for that - you deserve a medal if you can work out how much they charge within a few minutes of looking at their site. It doesn't include details of cashback, but broadbandforstudents.co.uk works out the "real monthly cost" including line rental etc - well worth a look.

Ok, now for a bit of rebuttal

allyours.virginmedia.com/websales/product.do?id=3264
VM offer £15 for 3 months and £20 afterwards when you avoid the line rental. Compare that with the £5 for 3 months and then £12.50 after (+£11.99 line rental), i.e. £16.99 for 3 and £24.49 after overall.

And so the non-line rental is the cheapest - hence I obtained the £225 for 12 months (then minus £60 cashback).

The site you have also linked failed to take into account the O2 £9.50 line rental that is offered (which is cheaper than the £11.49 stated line rental). O2 + BT Line Rental Saver (+cashback with O2 and BT) is the cheapest deal through phone line I have found so far (not including reconnection).

Ypaymore

1.You can only qualify for BT Line Rental Saver if you have paper-free billing and one of the following products:

• Unlimited Anytime Plan
• Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan
• Any package of products, such as phone and broadband

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13962/c/761,2071,2087

You cant get it on the weekend plan unless you take BT Broadband.

2. Post Office Homephone is worth looking at as it does not have a minimum term contract .You can use another suppliers broadband with it, eg 02.

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/content1?catId=68600711&mediaId=19300217&RMGPOPPC=Post+Office+Phone

3. The Phone Coop does 3 month contracts if you just restart an existing line.
They will also connect a phone for £78.96 ( 12 month contract)
You can use another suppliers broadband with them, eg 02

http://www.thephone.coop/residential/calls-and-rental

4. Ofcom have recently slashed the price of early cancellation charges which will help students and others who need to cancel early.

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2010/06/cheaper-charges-for-uk-consumers-to-end-phone-contracts/

exeterstudent

Ahhh, Virgin must've changed their prices in the last few weeks - they must've realised it makes no sense to make it more expensive to have a "line"!

TheTallOne_2

Ypaymore wrote: »

You cant get it on the weekend plan unless you take BT Broadband.

When I attempt to sign up for BT Line Rental Saver through Unlimited Weekend Calls only, the LRS option is still shown. The Unlimited Weekend and Evening option does not seem to be available at the moment.

atypical

Ypaymore wrote: »

1.You can only qualify for BT Line Rental Saver if you have paper-free billing and one of the following products:

• Unlimited Anytime Plan
• Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan
• Any package of products, such as phone and broadband

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13962/c/761,2071,2087

If you got to the page detailing all the call packages available it states "+ line rental from £9.49", even on the weekend package.

But in any case, it works out cheaper to disconnect early at 9 months i.e. £109.86 vs. £113.88. This will apply from October 2010 according to the Ofcom site.

exeterstudent wrote: »

Ahhh, Virgin must've changed their prices in the last few weeks - they must've realised it makes no sense to make it more expensive to have a "line"!

They haven't changed their prices. It is still cheaper to not have a line from them. It does make sense in that if you don't have a line you can't make calls so it follows that you should pay less.