Uni house - TV/internet/phone

[blockers]

Hi.

I am moving into my uni house next week and dont have tv/internet/phone sorted. I dont really know what companies do good deals, or if it is best to get cable or adsl etc. So hopefully you guys can straighten out a few things and suggest some ideas

Basically: There are 5 people living in the house, so internet will be wireless'ly networked. Most calls will be made to the house phone, but it wont be used too much for dialing out, although free evening/weekend calls would be nice. As for TV i dont really see the point of getting starter cable package as they seem a bit rubbish when you can pay once and get freeview.

1) Telewest (http://www.telewest.co.uk/websales/product.do?id=3032)
512k cable, 35 tv channnels (does anyone know what they are-i cant find a list), unlimited local+national calls at weekends. For £25.50 a month, free installation. Can you network cable? what equipment do you need - i have only used ADSL before.

2) NTL - seem pretty rubbish, and dont do a combination of all. Besides i have an ntl package at home and it is a bit poor so i would rather avoid altogether, unless someone can find me a blinding deal?

3) Random selection - from one of the numerous providers 1mb or bigger ADSL, and then the carphonewarehouse's talktalk, and a freeview box for £40/£50.

They are the 3 choices that i see, does anyone have experience of telewest and what are they like? what is the package like?

For option 3; at home we have 2mbps ADSL from nildram for £17/month or something-networking to 4 computers. Then if we get talktalk there is a free tariff on them, so it is just BT line rental. However there is a £60 set up charge for nildram.




So..........if this has made any sense! which option would you guys go for, and why? and if you have extra information relating to the options above, or other suggestions etc i would like to hear them. I fear that 512k will not be enough internet for 5 people, but i want to keep price down as much as possible.

Thanks so much
Will.

[Kezzer]

Do you mean halls or a private student flat?

[Nick F]

Have you thought about Homechoice, it does everything you need for around about £30 a month.

[Dougal]

The NTL deals are capped at 15 or 30GB.

I'm moving into my uni house next week.

Going for BT standard line rental: £10 p/m
And plus.net 2MB (advanced): £22.99p/m
the non advanced is £15pcm

Both uncapped.

[Aaron]

Uncapped is a good idea if there's 5 of you sharing. Speed isn't such a big factor, especially if you're not gaming.

Watch out for 12 month contracts though. Some will let you end the contract early if you're moving out, some will make you pay the remainder.

[Twigman]

Our student house:
BT cheapo line @ £10.50/month or something...
Then it was suggested that we get:
http://www.f9.net.uk/residential/bro...bb_premierlink
by one of my friends...but it looks identical to
http://www.plus.net/residential/broa...bb_premierlink
so whats the difference?
There appears to be none...except plusnet are more well known...
Whats the point?

[Tarffie]

35 tv channnels (does anyone know what they are-i cant find a list)

http://www.telewest.co.uk:80/html/so...ls_starter.htm

Can you network cable? what equipment do you need - i have only used ADSL before.

Same as you would an ADSL connection pretty much, router, receivers.

There appears to be none...except plusnet are more well known...

There isn't a difference, they are the same company.

"PlusNet's brands (PlusNet, Force9, Free-Online) are providing the best in broadband and dial-up services to nearly a quarter of a million customers."

[ekundo]

i think i found a deal on the NTL site, which was unlimited 512k and phone with free weekend and/or offpeak (cant remember exactly) for about £15.99 a month, but i cant find it anymore, i need to talk to the guys in the house about this though, i hate ntl

i'll see if i can find it again

[Twigman]

"PlusNet's brands (PlusNet, Force9, Free-Online) are providing the best in broadband and dial-up services to nearly a quarter of a million customers."

So who should we sign up with then? whats the difference? Why not jsut have one company? They are just making it complicated to confuse consumers

[blockers]

Kezzer - it is a 2nd year house, renting it at £68/week
Famished - thanks, they look really good, but as i was really getting into it i realised they only do London area; im in Exeter.

Well i want quite fast internet as i download a fair bit and play quite a few games. But the others dont; use msn, download a bit, and use the web. (although it all uses bytes.....) i would really rather avoid a cap, even the 50gb nildram one got a bit close with 3 people on 2mb/s line.

Tariffe - ta for the channel list, i must have been blind

That utility warehouse site looks really cheap - does anyone know anything about it?

I am quite leaning towards a 1mb+ ADSL, free evening/weekend calls, and freeview kind of set up.

[gobbo]

If you can get it, i'd recomend Bulldog.

I know they've had some bad press as of late, but they are getting sorted out now, plus they are pretty cheep (£45 PCM for phone + 8mb ADSL), plus they normally have some sort of special offer on for free line rental for 6 months or something.

[Michael]

Telewest... i think the minimum speed they will be providing is like.. 2mb, with no caps.. and yes it's VERY easier to network cable - much easier than ADSL actually, you get an ethernet cable coming from the cable modem you can plug into any networking device you want and share it from there, no username / password crap and tonnes of settings. It's just on. Always.

The TV is quite good too, Living Tv - CSI

[bertie]

You won't have the choice of Telewest OR NTL - but if you can get Telewest in your area you would be silly not to!

[Nick F]

If you can get it, i'd recomend Bulldog.

I know they've had some bad press as of late, but they are getting sorted out now, plus they are pretty cheep (£45 PCM for phone + 8mb ADSL), plus they normally have some sort of special offer on for free line rental for 6 months or something.

true I have noticed bulldog has got better over the last month. Speeds are good and I have never had any problems with the phone line. Homechoice might be a better option though.

[Wyoming]

So who should we sign up with then? whats the difference? Why not jsut have one company? They are just making it complicated to confuse consumers

If I see a company with multiple brandnames I avoid them for one of these two reasons:

1) They already have a reputation as a bad company.
2) They expect to have one at some time.

It makes perfect sense for a business to do such a thing if it is in this predicament and so my general opinion would be that perhaps their customer service is not great. If people find this out that means they have had problems with the product to have to contact customer service. That probably means the product is not great. Probably just my normal paranoia, but I would have to do a lot of research before wanting to use any of their products.

[Twigman]

Yeha have heard they are poor now...
Will look elsewhere...thanks