Student Broadband Deals

By Jamie Hartwell · Updated 2 October 2026

Links with an * may help pay for UniSorted.

Quick comparison: best student broadband deals 2026

Prices below were checked in June 2026 and reflect the April 2026 price rises now in effect; NOW and Virgin Media were re-checked on 12 September 2026, and Virgin's had moved. BT was re-checked on 2 October 2026, after it dropped its 9-month contract. Where a student-specific offer exists, that price is listed. Broadband deals change often, so always confirm the live monthly cost on the provider's own site before you sign up.

*BT's student discount needs a university email, covers plans up to Full Fibre 900 ordered on its website, and ends after 12 months, when you move to the standard out-of-contract price. Checked 2 October 2026.

How to choose student broadband

A student house isn't a home broadband customer. The tenancy runs September to June, there are four or five of you, and nobody wants to be the one still paying for a connection in a house they've left. So look at contract length before you look at speed: a 24-month deal outlives your tenancy by a year, while a 12-month one signed in September dies neatly with the lease.

Then speed, which is really a headcount question. Two people streaming want about 30Mbps; four or five all on calls, games and Netflix at once want 100Mbps or more, and full fibre at 150Mbps-plus stops the arguments. Price it per person: a £30 package split four ways is £7.50 each, which is why paying a bit more for something faster usually makes sense once the bill is shared.

NOW Broadband, if you can stomach 24 months

NOW Broadband is owned by Sky, and it has retired the cheap Super Fibre package students used to pick. The range is full fibre only: Full Fibre 75 at £23 a month for 80Mb, Full Fibre 100 at £25 for 100Mb, and Full Fibre 300 at £28 for 300Mb. All three carry a 24-month minimum term with no activation or delivery fee, and NOW puts its coverage at 51% of UK homes. Check your postcode before you build a plan around it.

80Mb covers two or three people streaming and on video calls. Once you're four or more, or anyone games or downloads heavily, the speed table further down says 100Mb-plus, so price up the £25 Full Fibre 100 or the £28 Full Fibre 300 instead. And skip NOW altogether unless you're certain you'll be in the same house for two years: the tie-in outlasts almost every student tenancy.

Hyperoptic: best value full fibre

Hyperoptic built its own fibre network block by block, into flats and student accommodation rather than down every street, which is both its strength and its catch. The result is symmetrical speeds: uploads as fast as downloads, which you notice the first time a 2GB video assignment goes up in a minute instead of an hour.

Through Student Beans, students could get 150Mbps for £15 a month on a rolling monthly option when we checked in June, with 500Mbps at £19 and 1Gbps at £25. Hyperoptic now only shows prices once you've entered a postcode, and offers 24-month, 12-month or roll-monthly terms, so ask which of those the student rate attaches to.

The catch is availability. Hyperoptic only covers certain buildings in major cities. You must check whether your specific address is connected before planning around this deal.

Virgin Media, the fast one

Virgin is the odd one out, running its own cable network with no BT phone line involved, and it does proper student packages: a 12-month minimum term, verified with an ac.uk email address, free setup and the router included.

When we checked on 12 September the student pricing was a lot keener than in June: M125 at 132Mbps for £23.99 a month, M500 at 516Mbps for £27.99, and Gig1 at 1,130Mbps for £29.99, with M125 and M500 stepping up by a pound or two after month 12. Virgin's own page still carried an offer date of 13 August, so confirm the live figure at your postcode before you build the house budget around it.

BT: a student discount, but no more 9-month contract

BT was on this list for one thing: a 9-month contract that ran September to June, so you stopped paying the day you moved out. That's gone. When we checked bt.com on 2 October 2026, the student page sold 12-month plans only, with a discount if you order using your university email.

The discount has rules. It only applies to orders on BT's website using your uni email at checkout, and it can't be added afterwards, which is easy to miss if a housemate orders on their phone with a Gmail address. It covers plans up to Full Fibre 900, and it stops after 12 months, when you roll onto BT's standard out-of-contract price unless you sign again. The monthly price also goes up £4 every 31 March (so you pay the rise before the year's even out). Real prices only appear after a postcode check, so put the house address in before you weigh it against Virgin.

The bigger problem is the length. Sign in September and the bills keep coming for two or three months after a June move-out, which is exactly what the 9-month deal used to avoid. Agree before you sign whose name goes on it and how those last bills get split. With that option gone, BT has no real edge for a student house over Virgin's 12-month student deal, which at least prints its price, or Cuckoo, which you can leave any time.

Ended up on a slow line? BT, like the other big providers, promises a minimum speed when you order. If you're stuck well under it and BT can't fix it within a month, you can walk away without an exit fee, and with five people sharing one connection that's worth more than a few pounds off.

Vodafone: the social tariff option

Vodafone was offering Full Fibre 150 at £23 a month with a Student Beans discount when we checked in June; its broadband pages don't show that deal or the student discount in a form we could re-read in September, so treat the £23 as a starting point rather than a promise. The reason it's here at all is the social tariff: if you receive Universal Credit, Pension Credit or certain other benefits, the Fibre 2 Essentials plan on a 12-month contract is one of the cheaper ways to get a shared house online, and Vodafone's site is the only reliable place for its current price.

Standard contracts run for 24 months, which is the main drawback: it only makes sense if you know you'll be in the same house for two years, a final year plus a graduate year, say. Existing Vodafone mobile customers get a further discount for bundling.

Cuckoo: the flexible option

Cuckoo sells itself on being the no-hassle option: it handles the switch from your old provider, includes a Wi-Fi 6 mesh hub, and, as of September, waives setup on every plan, engineer visit included. In June a rolling monthly option let you leave without exit fees, which is the feature that matters if you don't know where you'll be living in six months.

The range has been reshuffled since we first priced it: it's now Full Fibre 150, 500 and 900, and Cuckoo only shows the monthly price after a postcode check because it depends on which network reaches your street. In June the entry plan was about £22 a month; the old £60 setup fee on rolling plans has gone.

Sky, only if the house wants the telly too

Sky's Full Fibre 150 (150Mbps down, 27 up, Openreach, most addresses) was about £22 a month on an 18-month contract when we priced it in June, and you only see the live figure after a postcode. There's no student contract, so 18 months is the problem: it ends the summer after your tenancy does.

Where Sky stands out is bundling. If your house wants Sky Sports, Sky Cinema, or Netflix alongside broadband, the combined cost is often cheaper than buying each separately. Sky Stream and Sky Glass let you access content without a satellite dish, which matters in rented student houses where you cannot install one.

Sky charges a £3 fixed monthly price rise every April. Factor this into your annual budget when comparing total costs.

What speed does your student house need?

Choosing the right speed prevents arguments over buffering. The table below shows what you need based on the number of people sharing.

Upload speeds matter as much as download speeds. Standard connections offer uploads of around 10Mbps. Full fibre like Hyperoptic's is symmetrical, so uploads run as fast as downloads; if your course means pushing big video files, portfolios or code, that's the spec that matters.

Test the connection over an Ethernet cable, not Wi-Fi, before you complain about the speed: Wi-Fi is at the mercy of where the router sits, how thick the walls are and how many neighbours share the channel.

The April price rises, and how to dodge them

Every major UK broadband provider now applies annual price rises, typically in March or April. These are fixed pound-and-pence increases rather than the old inflation-linked percentages. Here is what each provider added in April 2026; expect a similar round next spring.

You can sidestep these hikes with providers that don't apply mid-contract increases: when we checked in June, Hyperoptic's rolling monthly student plans carried no rise and Cuckoo froze prices for the length of a fixed term; confirm both before you sign.

If you are already on a contract and the price rises, you now have the legal right to leave penalty-free within 30 days of the increase taking effect. Use the Ofcom One Touch Switch process: contact your new provider and they will handle cancelling your old deal.

Splitting broadband bills with housemates

One name goes on the contract, and that person owns the whole bill: if the money doesn't arrive, the provider chases them, not the housemates who forgot to transfer.

Whoever's name is on it will spend the year chasing transfers unless the money moves automatically: a joint bills account with standing orders in, or an app that splits it, set up before the router arrives. And agree in writing what happens when someone leaves in February, because someone will.

Find more ways to reduce your monthly outgoings in our student money guides.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get student broadband without a phone line?

Yes. Hyperoptic and Virgin run their own cables and don't touch the phone line at all. Openreach-based providers (BT, Sky, NOW, Cuckoo) still use the line, but nobody charges separate line rental any more; it's all one monthly figure.

Do I have to pay broadband setup fees?

Usually not, and the table above shows who charges. Where there is one it's typically £15 to £30 for an engineer visit; rolling contracts sometimes carry a setup fee that a fixed term waives, which is the trade you're making for the freedom to leave.

What happens to my broadband during the summer holidays?

On a fixed contract you keep paying for an empty house; that's the whole argument for 9- and 12-month deals and rolling plans. On a rolling plan you cancel in June and reconnect in September. A few providers will pause you for a small monthly fee, so ask before you cancel.

How do I switch student broadband providers?

Order from the new provider and stop there: One Touch Switch means they cancel the old one for you. The only thing to check first is your current end date, because switching mid-term still costs you the exit fee.

Is 36Mbps fast enough for a student house?

For two people, fine. For three or more it falls over at about 8pm when everyone's streaming at once. A house of four wants 100Mbps as a floor, and the £2 or £3 a month difference split four ways is nothing.

Can I use my own router instead of the provider's?

On BT, NOW and Sky, yes, anything compatible. Virgin's Hub has to stay in the chain because it's also the cable modem, but you can drop it into modem mode and hang your own router off it. Hyperoptic sends a router and doesn't mind if you swap it.

Editorial standards

Written by

Jamie Hartwell

Jamie Hartwell writes the student money guides: loans, payment dates, bank accounts, overdrafts, budgeting. He's been at it since September 2025 and has a soft spot for the dull question of which day the money turns up. jamie@unisorted.co.uk