Broadband at University Accommodation

[ReformedCharacter]

My son started at university last September, he is studying an IT related course. We decided on his accommodation with the guidance of the university's Accommodation Guide. The flat that he eventually chose was advertised in the guide as having 'Free High Speed Wifi'.

The accommodation is satisfactory but the wifi proved to be problematical. In order to find out how good or bad it was I sent my son a utility to monitor the wifi connection. This showed that the maximum it ever reached in speed was less than 2Mbps and extremely unreliable, eg connection failures for extended periods on numerous occasions each hour.

I sent the log to the university's accommodation department and requested action to remedy. Thus started a long and thus far unfruitful series of communications which has achieved exactly nothing.

The situation is complicated by the fact that the university does not actually own the premises and can therefore make no arrangements with BT directly but has to try (or not) to deal with the building's owners who I assume do not wish to incur extra costs.

I suggested to the university at an early stage that - since they may have difficulties installing extra bandwidth via BT - they could supply the students living in the flat with a 3G router and some SIM cards. Since this equipment is portable and would require little if any work to be undertaken to the fabric of the property it should not require any agreement with the landlord. I would think that this could be set up within an hour and my son's 'phone suggests that bandwidth would be adequate if not exactly 'high speed'.

I suspect that the university is hoping that either I will give up complaining or that they will be able to spin the process out long enough for my son to complete his year in the accommodation and they will therefore not have actually deal with the matter.

I am not a legal person but it looks to me to a case of breach of contract. Is there any way I can persuade the university to fulfil their side of the deal? Small claims court perhaps?

RC

[didds]

IANAL.

If you went to small claims court what would you actually be hoping to be paid ?

It _could be_ (man on clapham omnibus here) as little as the cost of that house's b/band provision. Which could be as little as £20 a month (or less!?!) shared between the house's occupants. Which I doubt would then provide for better service as you have described.

That's not to say that some resolution may not be worthwhile chasing but equally I can;lt see that much will change - aside somehow the accomodation contract being null and void and permitting him to look for alternatives with better b/band. But that won;t as I understand it be available via the small claims court.

cheers didds

[ReformedCharacter]

IANAL.

If you went to small claims court what would you actually be hoping to be paid ?

It _could be_ (man on clapham omnibus here) as little as the cost of that house's b/band provision. Which could be as little as £20 a month (or less!?!) shared between the house's occupants. Which I doubt would then provide for better service as you have described.

That's not to say that some resolution may not be worthwhile chasing but equally I can;lt see that much will change - aside somehow the accomodation contract being null and void and permitting him to look for alternatives with better b/band. But that won;t as I understand it be available via the small claims court.

cheers didds

Thanks for your comments, I wonder if the Court might be able to persuade the university to actually honour their side of the deal, but perhaps not.

RC

[didds]

Thanks for your comments, I wonder if the Court might be able to persuade the university to actually honour their side of the deal, but perhaps not.

RC

Not a small claims court won't. That all about cash.



didds

[forlesen]

Is your son the only one with problems? I imagine he's in a shared flat. What results do his flatmates see when they run the same speed test?

If they all have the same problem, it will add weight to your complaints to the university. If they don't, then either your son needs to look at his own wifi setup, or perhaps he is very unlucky with his room location.

But I have considerable doubts you will get anywhere. It's quite probable that large numbers of students are busily streaming TV, video, games, other high bandwidth data, and are simply maxing out the wifi or the internet connection, both of which will have finite capacity. Note that this does not necessarily conflict with the university saying they are "high speed".

More constructively, and particularly if this is affecting your son's work, you might want to look at getting your son decent mobile data. For example, you could look at 3, who are offering monthly SIM only plans with "all you can eat" data for £27 per month. OK, not cheap, and annoying if you feel you have paid for this already, but the cost is tiny set alongside what your son is paying for his accommodation and tuition. He probably only needs 2-3 months to get him through exams. (He'd want to check in-room coverage before spending too much on this, e.g. pick up a SIM put a little money on it, and try it out, or find a friend on that network already).

[modellingman]

I am not a legal person but it looks to me to a case of breach of contract. Is there any way I can persuade the university to fulfil their side of the deal? Small claims court perhaps?

RC

You do not say who the contract is with. Is it with the University or is it with a private sector provider? And precisely what does the contract (as opposed to a guide) actually say about the provision of the service.

[ReformedCharacter]

I am not a legal person but it looks to me to a case of breach of contract. Is there any way I can persuade the university to fulfil their side of the deal? Small claims court perhaps?

RC

You do not say who the contract is with. Is it with the University or is it with a private sector provider? And precisely what does the contract (as opposed to a guide) actually say about the provision of the service.

I pay the university for the accommodation. The university advertises various properties in their guide, some of which is owned by the university and some by a contractor, although this distinction was not made in their material and I was unaware until I complained about the broadband connection that the property was not owned by the university.

As far as I am aware there is no contract apart from the guide which advertises the facilities. I assume that the contract is based on that material and my payment to the university for those advertised facilities.

RC

[ReformedCharacter]

I have a different suggestion. The student accommodation often has a LAN socket on the wall. If so, this could be significantly faster. Test it and if that is the case, buy a router and plug it into the LAN socket to make your own private WiFi network. HTH.

There is no socket but my son did try a cable attached to the router (a Homehub 2), it offered no performance improvement.

RC

[didds]

I have a different suggestion. The student accommodation often has a LAN socket on the wall. If so, this could be significantly faster. Test it and if that is the case, buy a router and plug it into the LAN socket to make your own private WiFi network. HTH.

I have got tghe impression that stuent accomdation with lan sockets tends to be university campus halls of residence.

The OPs son is in digs ie private rentals albeit arranged through the university accomodation department.

didds

[swill453]

The OPs son is in digs ie private rentals albeit arranged through the university accomodation department.

The rent is paid to the university though, so they are at least involved in the contract or lease.

Scott.

[didds]

Private sector providers also have on campus accommodation too. Makes no difference if the landlord is university or private IME.

Its unclear whether the OP's son is on campus, but I get your point

Who is making the claim about high speed wifi though? The university - or the end landlord? If the private landlord is not making any such claim then its hardly their fault that they are misrepresented. It could be setting up for an interesting juxtaposition if the Uni claim it and its a pertinent contractual clause but the landlord doesn't claim it; it could be the uni contract is null and void as a result - but the private landlord will still want paying from (presumably) the university as agents. I'd wager though that the tenancy contract will have a overriding clause about any one clause being null and void does not make the entire contract null and void though. Best hope in that case is that some minimal recompense is made to equal the b/band subscription ie a relative pittance especially once shared between all occupants of the house.



didds

[ReformedCharacter]

Private sector providers also have on campus accommodation too. Makes no difference if the landlord is university or private IME.

Its unclear whether the OP's son is on campus, but I get your point

Who is making the claim about high speed wifi though? The university - or the end landlord? If the private landlord is not making any such claim then its hardly their fault that they are misrepresented. It could be setting up for an interesting juxtaposition if the Uni claim it and its a pertinent contractual clause but the landlord doesn't claim it; it could be the uni contract is null and void as a result - but the private landlord will still want paying from (presumably) the university as agents. I'd wager though that the tenancy contract will have a overriding clause about any one clause being null and void does not make the entire contract null and void though. Best hope in that case is that some minimal recompense is made to equal the b/band subscription ie a relative pittance especially once shared between all occupants of the house.
didds

The accommodation isn't on the campus. The claim about 'high speed wifi' was made in the university's accommodation guide, therefore the claim is being made by the university about accommodation owned by a private contractor.

RC

[modellingman]

I am not a legal person but it looks to me to a case of breach of contract. Is there any way I can persuade the university to fulfil their side of the deal? Small claims court perhaps?

RC

You do not say who the contract is with. Is it with the University or is it with a private sector provider? And precisely what does the contract (as opposed to a guide) actually say about the provision of the service.

I pay the university for the accommodation. The university advertises various properties in their guide, some of which is owned by the university and some by a contractor, although this distinction was not made in their material and I was unaware until I complained about the broadband connection that the property was not owned by the university.

As far as I am aware there is no contract apart from the guide which advertises the facilities. I assume that the contract is based on that material and my payment to the university for those advertised facilities.

RC

Irrespective of the provider, it would be highly unusual if there was no written contract governing the accommodation. There are a number of situations which might arise where the provider would wish to protect its interests. Examples include: your son might decide to move out and/or install somebody else in his accommodation; recovering the costs of damage to the accommodation and its furniture; terms of payment and the ability to charge interest on late payments; recovery of the property at the end of the agreed term; charges levied for replacing lost keys, etc, etc, etc. Your son may have been required to sign something designed to give the provider these sorts of protections either when he agreed to take the accommodation or when he was given the keys. If the provider is a private organisation, and note that the accommodation provider need not be the building owner, it is possible that the contract may amount to an agreement which falls within the scope within the scope of the Housing Acts.

I would also suspect it is highly unlikely that you will be a party to whatever contract does exist. The contract whether expressly written down or implied on the basis of what is stated in a University accommodation guide will almost certainly be between the provider and your son. If you make payments direct to the University you will almost certainly be doing so on behalf of your son and not on your own account (unless, of course, the contract says otherwise).

The reason I have asked about the details of the contract is that you mentioned "breach of contract" in your OP and implied that there was a possibility of action through the small claims court. If you are thinking of going down these lines you do need to be clear about what contract is actually applicable and who it is between. Whilst I can understand your annoyance that your son is not getting a facility which was influential in his choice of accommodation, simply making assumptions about the contract that governs the provision of that facility is unlikely to be a successful strategy.

[didds]

I'll add that whilst my own son's university private off campus digs (arranged via a university accomnodation bureau) contract is between him and the agency, nonetheless as a guarantor said agency has never queried my calling/speaking to them when they stuffed up again. Whether that would extend to any potential claims via MCOL/small claims etc, but it wouldn;t have to be me that took o0ut the claim anyway but my son.

naturally this may not be the case for the OP

didds

[ReformedCharacter]

My sincere thanks to all those who have replied. It looks as if we will just have to put up with it or make our own broadband provision. Thanks again.

RC

[forlesen]

forlesen wrote:
For example, you could look at 3, who are offering monthly SIM only plans with "all you can eat" data for £27 per month.

Very interested in this but cannot find this deal on 3's website? Do you have a link please? It seems 20Gb month is the maximum they do. Thanks.

We're getting a bit off topic for this board, but have a look here:
http://www.three.co.uk/Store/SIM/Plans_for_phones

Select the top tick box in the middle column - All-you-can-eat (30GB Personal Hotspot), and untick the others. You'll see six options.

[forlesen]

I have found the page now, it is a data plan for phones. Will such a SIM work in a 4G router, or will it "know" it isn't in a handset and will refuse to work?

A bit of googling (e.g. 3 data sim vs phone sim) suggests this would at the very least breach Three's T's and C's, and probably wouldn't work - after all, Three can detect what device you are using, and could see that it is a tablet / whatever, not a phone. However, you could definitely use a suitable mobile phone with a Three SIM as a hotspot. The Three package details are explicit about this: "Share your phone’s internet with other devices such as tablets and laptops. This can be really handy when you’re away from a WiFi network. You can use all of your data allowance as a personal hotspot unless you’ve chosen a plan with All-you-can-eat data in which case you can use up to 30GB of this each month as a personal hotspot allowance in the UK."

[Gengulphus]

... How bizarre. Surely, 30Gb is 30Gb of data no matter whether it is a laptop downloading through a tethered mobile phone hot spot, or a tablet down loading via a 4G router! ...

If the 30Gb of data is delivered as effectively through the tethered mobile phone hot spot as it is through the 4G router, I agree - but it's by no means obvious that it will be. Not obvious that it won't be either, but it is at least possible that the mobile phone service and the 4G router service have been optimised for different workloads...

Gengulphus

[swill453]

Thanks, simply doesn't make sense to me. 30Gb is still 30Gb passing via their infrastructure. Data is just data. Isn't it?

But the providers know that statistically, the average usage will be a proportion of the maximum allowance, and will build their networks and decide their pricing on that basis.

So I'd imagine that they've found that the average proportion of the data allowance used in a phone is lower than the proportion used if the SIM is in a router. Possibly quite significantly lower.

Scott.

[Gengulphus]

Thanks, simply doesn't make sense to me. 30Gb is still 30Gb passing via their infrastructure. ...

No, the 30Gb figure isn't the amount of data passing via their infrastructure, but an allowance - the maximum amount of data the user can put through their infrastructure (without paying excess charges). If the user habitually tries to access the data at times and places where there are a lot of other 3 customers also trying to access data, they might not actually be able to use all their allowance, or they might experience longer delays using it. And it's possible (*) that the mobile phone service and the 4G router service use different allocations of 3's bandwidth, with different amounts of contention between customers for the available bandwidth.

Basically, your statement is basically like saying "a letter is a letter, so the difference between first-class postage and second-class postage makes no sense". That statement is fallacious because speed of delivery is sometimes important for a letter; your statement may be similarly fallacious.

(*) I don't have the detailed knowledge of 3's networks needed to know for certain, so can only talk about what's possible.

Gengulphus