withayam.com

Articles Menu

Getting Connected: Student Broadband

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the vast array of solutions to get you connected to the net. Here at withayam we've run a trained eye behind the headlines of the major players and interrogated their claims to find which options actually offer the best services for you this year (2006).    Skip to our recommendations »

Checklist of Broadband Considerations

1. ADSL vs Cable

There are two common technologies that could potentially deliver the Internet to your house:

• Cable (supplied by ntl:/Telewest)
  • There is only one major cable provider (Telewest is now part of ntl:). They have decided this year to not make provision for Students as they have in previous years, and when we called on 20th Aug, they would not be prepared to connect students on anything less than a 12 month contract (see Consideration 2 for contract length info). Cable unlike ADSL does not require a BT line. Therefore, this route could save you £11 or so a month. Cable is also worth considering for Cable TV.
• ADSL (using a standard BT phone line)
  • A BT line is required for all ADSL services (See Consideration 6 - Lead Times for more info). There is an increasing number of companies that will bill telephone calls to you instead of BT for a saving of between a £0.50 and £2.00 saving per month, and slightly cheaper calls. This is made less attractive when you consider that you have to have get BT to connect your line to begin with, and then migrate your service over with a 30 day wait.

2. Contract Length

Most student houses are rented for a 9-10 month (Sep - Jun) period. A wide selection of popular broadband services require you to commit to 12 months. It is through this contract that they can offer some very low prices. So if you don't want to be paying for Internet access that you won't use, count out the following popular packages:

• Talk Talk Free Broadband for Life (18 months)
• Sky Broadband (12 months)
• Orange Broadband (12 months)
• BT Total Broadband (12 months)

3. Capping

These days, the speed of your connection isn't the most critical cost factor. Most broadband providers will offer the fastest speed they can (see Consideration 4). Providers develop their packages and pricing structure around the amount of stuff they'll let you pull through your connection. These limits range widely from 200mb to completely unlimited.

• 200mb - Packages with low caps are akin to 'pay as you go'. You will pay a small (in the region of £10-15) connection fee per month, and will pay a sum for every gigabyte of traffic beyond that cap. This is ideal for infrequent broadband users yet with many housemates sharing a connection, that 200mb could disappear very quickly, and you could easily find yourself paying a lot each month.
• Unlimited - Some providers offer a truly unlimited service, but more often than not this is accompanied by a 'fair usage policy' that may explicitly mention their definition of fair usage (can be as low as 40gig), so infact it's not unlimited at all.
• Switching packages - It's difficult to predict your future internet usage, so most providers will either permit transfers from one package in a range to another for a small fee or will offer top-ups over that limit e.g. £1.50 per gig.
• Unmetered Access - A couple of service providers have begun to apply time-sensitive capping. Our top recommendations below offer an unmetered connection in the middle of the night. These services offer the opportunity to download large files at night while not using up your quota. These are a great way to save money if you can be flexible about when you do your downloading.

4. Speed

The speed of your connection will be determined by what you're willing to pay and where you live. The top speed available depends on the distance of your house from your local telephone exchange and the quality of line that connects the two. As a rule of thumb, the further away your house, the lower the speed of broadband you can receive. Availability checkers can give you an indication of what you might expect to receive. Whatever the headline figure on speed may be (8 meg is commonplace) this does not guarantee you will be able to connect at that speed, you may have to put up with 3 meg and still pay the same price.

Recently, BT have had to open their local exchanges to equipment from other service providers. This has the potential to change your options. You may find that some service providers can offer higher speeds than others. Find your local exchange here and discover what's available to you.

5. Setup and Equipment Costs

It costs your service provider to set up your broadband connection. They either choose to forward this cost to you in the form of a connection charge, or to spread the cost over your monthly payments. Look at the table below under 'Recommendations' to see which deals work out the best value for money over a 9 month period by working out the total cost of ownership (TCO) which includes setup and equipment considerations. If you're looking to share the Internet between more than one computer, you'll need some equipment to do the sharing. Most broadband providers will offer a range of hardware to choose from. You will need to decide at this stage whether to go wireless or wired based on your needs. Getting your equipment from your provider gives their technical support the best chance of fixing any potential problems.

6. Lead Time

It can take between 5 and 30 days for your connection to be made live. It's important to note that you can only order an ADSL connection once you have the working BT line in place, so it's a good idea to get ahead of the game and arrange your BT line ready for when you arrive. Click Here for advice on getting your BT line.

Recommendations

But Remember

Even among students, differing circumstances and needs make different solutions viable and/or more attractive than others. For example, some services are only available in the greater London area. So the best we can do is help you make a well informed decision.

Advice of this nature is also time sensitive. Packages and prices change frequently. We are up-to-date as of 21st August '06, which should cover all options for your student house this September.

Disclaimer

We've done our best to represent the facts as they are. We cannot however guarantee that this page is correct at the time of you reading it. Errors and Omissions may be present and must be Accepted. Withayam accepts no liability or responsibility for your choice of broadband provider. We highly recommend shopping around and thoroughly reading the terms and conditions of service providers you are considering before signing up.