published: 13th September 2022 updated: 10th August 2026
You’ve sorted your housemates and signed your lease. Now it’s time to set up bills and utilities for the first time – pretty daunting stuff! Especially when you have to tackle the most important bill of all: the wi-fi!
Between streaming online lectures, late-night gaming sessions and everyone streaming a different Netflix show from different devices, you need a broadband package that can handle everything. The big question is, what is the best broadband for students?
TL;DR – the best broadband for students: price breakdown
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| product | home900 | Full Fibre Gigafast | Gig1 Fibre Broadband | 900 Mbps Core |
| download speed | 900 Mbps | 904-951 Mbps | 1130 Mbps | 900 Mbps |
| upload speed | 900 Mbps | 787 - 947 Mbps | 104 Mbps | 110 Mbps |
| monthly cost | £29 | £25 | £35.99 | £40.99 discount available through StudentBeans from £27.99 |
| contract length | 12 months | 24 months | 12 months | 12 months |
| total contract cost (excl. price rises) | £348 | £600 | £431.88 | £491.88 |
| mid-contract price increase (correct as of August 2026) | £2 | £3 (exact increase depends on your package) | £4 | £4 |
| set up fee | £0 | £5 and if applicable £5 refundable advance fee for new customers | £0 | £30 |
information taken from provider websites, correct as of 10th August 2026. prices may vary by location
what to look for when choosing the best student broadband
hidden costs
Steep setup fees or unnecessary line rental charges can catch you out.
Some broadband providers charge an installation or setup fee just to activate your service. The best broadband for students will offer £0 installation or setup costs.
When it comes to line rental, unless you plan to use a landline, you do not need to pay line rental! Broadband only providers, like toob, don’t charge for unnecessary line rental that you’ll never use.
Many broadband providers have price increases during your contract, it’s best to do you research to look for a provider that offers the lowest price increasea to ensure you don’t get caught out. It’s best to avoid providers that will increase your bill by a percentage. At toob we have one of the lowest price increases; in April your bill would go up by £2 per month.
This is really important when working out how much broadband will cost each person too, if you choose a provider than increases your bill by a percentage you won’t be able to plan ahead for how much your student broadband will cost you until they announce the percentage!
avoid bandwidth battles
The best student broadband is the one that can handle everyone’s needs! There’s nothing worse than a house of four, five or six students all trying to upload assignments, game and stream all at the same time if your broadband can’t handle it.
With many broadband providers it’s a recipe for disaster when there’s lag or the spinning wheel of buffering doom that causes flat arguments. That’s why the best broadband for students offers symmetrical speeds.
Most broadband providers offer a much faster download speed than upload speed. The download speed is the big number advertised on the broadband package. You might find providers selling 500 Mbps download speeds but only 30 Mbps upload speeds. That’s a problem if you’re submitting coursework, add in that someone might be online gaming at the same time you’re trying to submit your coursework then you’ve got a massive slowdown problem meaning you might not hit your submission deadline, your friend has been killed in the final battle or both.
The best student broadband has symmetrical speeds because it means your download and upload speeds are the same, so a provider that advertises 900 Mbps download speeds will also provide 900 Mbps upload speeds. That means your student broadband has enough bandwidth to cope with data being sent both ways on the network and is less likely to cause network congestion. Pretty straightforward right?
which broadband is best for students?
The best broadband for students is affordable, reliable and offers symmetrical broadband speeds.
At toob we offer competitively price 12 month broadband deals for students. Our pricing is clear and honest with no hidden fees, making it more affordable to split the bill with your housemate and know exactly what you’re paying from your first bill to the last.
We recommend our home900 service to most student houses, with enough bandwidth to go around, our 12 month contract is only £7.25 each per month when split between 4 housemate (price correct as of August 2026) or for £8.75 each per month, you could benefit from the home2300.
Our 2300 Mbps service downloads up to 13x faster download and uploads 38x faster than the UK average broadband speed4! We recommend home2300 for student houses with lots of people sharing, particularly if you’re big gamers!
