Internet Access for Students

Legacy_user

Although my daughter can access the internet in the university there is no internet access in the shared accommodation she has just moved into. Can any other students out there point us in the right direction for getting access in her new home.
Will one of the housemates have to take on a contract or can it be taken out in joint names?
Will they have to pay line rental also?
Are there any other potential problems we should think about?

gizmoleeds

If they are in a cable area they can possibly get broadband only - otherwise they will need a BT phone line.

If they are lucky and in a telewest area then Telewest do some very good deals.

I think it would probably have to be in one person's name though.

512k Broadband and cable TV for £15 (or £20 for 1Mb):

http://www.telewest.co.uk:80/websales/product.do?id=6498

Then get VOIP for your calls for free!

System

Unfortunately she is living in Newcastle upon Tyne which according to the Telewest website is outside their area but they recommend NTL instead. I'll get her to have a look at that.

gizmoleeds

http://www.home.ntl.com/icat/broadband&source=ntlcom_bblink

Looks like NTL would be the best offer then, with 1Mb for £9.99. NTL are in my area and they set up stands at unis doing 9 month contracts.

megsykins

We've got NTL, £30 pm for 2 MB BBand, line rental and cable TV (for those 'breaks' in studying) Split 4 ways so not too bad! BT were a bit cheaper minus the telly, but £75 installation fee put us off, NTL has free installation and £10 off if sign up online at the moment. It is a 12 months contract though.
It's in my name and paid by Direct Debit; when the bills come, I split it up and add up everyone's seperate bill - NTL itemise calls over 50p. If anyone wants to query, they can see the bill and add it up themselves.
The last house I was in it was in my housemates name but we had the same system.

Potential problems mainly stem from the phone line and calls not being admitted to; although if one of her housemates is very into online gaming and / or downloading music / films, this could eat into the monthly useage allowances and cause probs. If they're going to be using it loads, could be worth getting a higher package and paying the extra. Having said that 2MB has been enough for 3 of us last year and my housemates download a lot
Other prob is if she's not planning to live there all year. We had to pay the full 12 months at our old place, even though we moved out after 10. Make sure they're aware of this.

HTH x

System

Thanks to you both for your advice. We are with NTL ourselves at home for the internet and telephone and have unlimited internet use. My daughter is due to register on 26th Sept and I have told her to see if NTL are there. Having read your posts I've also made her aware of the potential problems with the phone calls. She survived last year by communicating with us via text, she has an O2 genie card, or by us calling her mobile and I don't see that that needs to change but she really needs internet access to help with her studies and as a further way to keep in touch with us.

lellie

If your house has had a phoneline previously and it's dormant there is no reconnection fee.

TeamMCS

Well thats interesting, but I have a feeling they arn't going to connect up a mutistory building (flats)

spirit

My daughter is having Telewest broadband and cable connected this week. RE paying for it, i am paying the £15 for her and the other house sharers can either choose to have their own connected or can buy a router between them and run off DD's - for a small contribution. For the other bills, each person registers 1 bill in their name with agreements for the other sharers to pay her/him. I didn't want the phone being put in a shared part of the house so they can't run up large phone bills. DD has a locker in her room to unplug her phone and put away when not there. - not that we don't trust people but it's easy to run away with phone calls home! I don't know a fair way of splitting a phone bill because they may not have equal use of it and so the lighter users end up subsidising the heavy ones.

onzey

I'm trying to advise my daughter between BT line + freedom2surf broadband or NTL.
Both NTL and BT are possible options in the 5 student house she's in. Should be no reconnection fee for BT.

Does anyone know if the NTL £9.99 broadband deal will definately be offered to students for only 9 months if that's all that's required? I can only see 12 month contract mentioned on NTL website.

I've searched a number of threads and am finding it hard to decide which route to advise. I have no actual experience with NTL but we have BT+F2S at home and have been happy with it. Is NTL for both broadband and phone a good idea?

Thanks for any comments.

lellie

onzey wrote:

Does anyone know if the NTL £9.99 broadband deal will definately be offered to students for only 9 months if that's all that's required? I can only see 12 month contract mentioned on NTL website.
.

Yes it will. They will have a stand at every freshers fair in the country.. get her to go along.

Mind you - most people say avoid NTL at all costs :S apparently poor service.