Student property - Broadband

catox_2

Hello,

I am living with three other students about to start our second year at university. We are renting a property and need to set up broadband. The property has a phone line and the estate agent told us that we will need to set up a BT phone line account (as we cannot use the existing one) which we will need to pay separately from our broadband. I assume this is line rental? However we want to set up Sky broadband unlimited and they also charge line rental. As we don't have a landline phone number, Sky want to charge us to call out an engineer to install a phone line which we can't do as we are renting and don't actually need. Is there away to set up broadband from another provider without having to pay BT for a phone line account, and therefore without a phone number? We don't want to have to pay line rental to Sky and pay BT for the phone line. I hope this makes sense!

Pincher

Student sharers are slime, but even toads have to find a flatmate.


What the suppliers should do is to create student special accounts.


Pay for the line rental and broadband the whole academic year at the beginning. There is an exit penalty if you leave early.


When summer comes, pay in advance for three months, or it's automatically cut off, phone line and broadband.


It hardly matters if somebody puts their name on the account, and God knows NOBODY wants to.

bsms1147

Pincher wrote: »

Student sharers are slime, but even toads have to find a flatmate.


What the suppliers should do is to create student special accounts.


Pay for the line rental and broadband the whole academic year at the beginning. There is an exit penalty if you leave early.


When summer comes, pay in advance for three months, or it's automatically cut off, phone line and broadband.


It hardly matters if somebody puts their name on the account, and God knows NOBODY wants to.

How very useful to the OP.

~

If there is already a phone line into the house an engineer should be able to simply reconnect it, it shouldn't have to get as far as physically installing a new line/drilling walls etc, which as you say, may not be possible in rented accommodation. On many occasions the connection does not require anyone to visit.

You will take line rental and broadband from one provider. Most companies stipulate you cannot have broadband from them if you are paying line rental to another company, if it even is possible.

Any reason why Sky? There are plenty of cheaper alternatives.

phona

When I first moved out of my parents' I paid my line rental directly to BT separately to my payment to my broadband supplier. I think it was more the done thing then. Now it's more common to pay the line rental to your supplier and I suppose they pay BT.
Perhaps then, your estate agent is just out of date. You won't be charged for line rental twice.

As it happens, I was on the BT broadband website today and I noticed they do something called "student broadband". I have absolutely no idea what that is or how it differs to normal broadband but it might be worth looking into that sort of deal. I would hazard a guess it's a shorter contract to not cover the summer and maybe it is held jointly between all flatmates, but that's just my speculation since I didn't read any more.

mahatma_andy

Virgin do a 9 month broadband only contract. Not convinced its the best bet for students as a 12 month contract may be better overall. Sky have an offer via cashback sites that works out nearly free for the year once the cashback is taken into account. Slower speed than virgin though.

spyhunter

BT student deals are here

http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumer/student-offer/index.html?s_cid=con_ppc_maxus_vidZ60_T1&vendorid=Z60&gclid=CJLN76iIy8ACFYUIwwodkEIAhA&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CN64_KiIy8ACFYUEwwodv7EArA


Bear in mind you will still get the £30 cease charge if the service is cancelled in or out of the minimum term if no MAC is used to transfer to another isp.

Probably best to look at cashback sites and voucher offers that many isp's are offering as these could cancel out any early termination charges.

macman

Clueless EA...you can take your line rental from any ISP you wish. It doesn't have to be BT.
However if the line is disconnected then a reconnection charge may be payable.-that costs the same as a new line provision if so. OR will simply recycle the existing line when they connect you.