Seriously overpriced student 'broadband'

debtdestroyer_2

Hey guys,

My girlfs in privately owned uni accomadation (as oppossed to university owned) and has just paid extra to have internet in her room - a cost of £150 a year (compared to £30 a year in her halls last year). This to mean seems extorianate as tehre are 5 people living in her flat this equates to £750 a year, per flat. It is also, to be frank, the slowest interent connection ive seen since the dark days of dial up.

She has no choice howver but to accept this as obviously being a student she would be seriously inconvienienced without interent access at home, and according to the staff here they are 'stuck' in a contract with their broadband supplier.

I was wondering if it was worth complaining to any professional bodies (offcom etc) as tehre are 4000 students in this accomation paying at least £750 per flat per year.

Seems to me like a prime example of profiteering by the supplier.

Thanks

millie

My son had exactly the same problem in some privately owned student accomodation (Victoria Hall) in Nottingham when he was there it was even more expensive if you paid it monthly instead of upfront. He could not use his laptop on wireless because it is set up to stop that, so the connection could not be shared between the other residents, I have a recollection there were limits on what he could download too. He was only there from Octber to June so it was a total rip off, but as you say there is no choice.

Iamthesmartestmanalive

debtdestroyer wrote: »

Hey guys,

My girlfs in privately owned uni accomadation (as oppossed to university owned) and has just paid extra to have internet in her room - a cost of £150 a year (compared to £30 a year in her halls last year). This to mean seems extorianate as tehre are 5 people living in her flat this equates to £750 a year, per flat. It is also, to be frank, the slowest interent connection ive seen since the dark days of dial up.

She has no choice howver but to accept this as obviously being a student she would be seriously inconvienienced without interent access at home, and according to the staff here they are 'stuck' in a contract with their broadband supplier.

I was wondering if it was worth complaining to any professional bodies (offcom etc) as tehre are 4000 students in this accomation paying at least £750 per flat per year.

Seems to me like a prime example of profiteering by the supplier.

Thanks

There are 4000 students paying £150 not 4000 students paying £750 per flat

And not all will pay it im sure

Other factors will depend on the type of broadband etc

Is it limited? Is it wireless etc

Setting up a reliable wireless service on a massive site and ensuring adequate safety could well be expensive

At the end of the day your GF is paying 12.50 a month for her service

debtdestroyer_2

My girlfs in nottingham too - glass house halls of residence though.

The prob is that I dont believe for a second that the marginal cost of providing this connection is anywhere approaching £150 a year. Being as the university owned halls can provide a much superior connection at a fifth of the cost do the management of these halls not have a duty to enter into a contract with a provider which would give their residents the best possible deal; being as tehre is a mononpoly here it is essentialliy up to the management of the accomadaton which provider all tehse students use.

Im sure there must be some kind of consumer law in place to protect against situaions such as this?

Oh and the connection is wired, not wireless although im not sure if it is limited.

Each flat has 5 people, so if everyonone in the flat has the connection it is £750 per flat per year. If this were a house being shared between 5 people and they were paying £750 a year for substandard broadband i wouldve thought offcom would have something to say about it?

espresso

Yes it is quite expensive individually but it would also be expensive to set up internet in a privately rented house etc. It is possible to share an internet connection by connecting a wireless access point to the Ethernet port, although this breaks their terms and conditions, it does happen.