Students in Napier accommodation still facing internet difficulties

Edinburgh Napier University students are still experiencing difficulties accessing and achieving quick speeds using the in-house internet service, despite being resident in their new homes for seven weeks.

When students signed up for university-managed accommodation this year, they were promised a landline telephone and 8mb high speed broadband internet. However, many students have experienced slow speeds and had trouble logging on at peak times.

A statement released by the university to all residents read: “With regards to the internet, it is currently being upgraded to a faster speed but will be running slower than anticipated as it is now a free service that all students are using. When the upgrade to 8Mb is completed the connection should be a lot better.”

The university has this year included internet rates in weekly rent charges - a change from previous years where individual students had to pay a high rate for access to the service.

The missive, sent by Helen Crocker, manager of Student Accommodation at the university, explained that a process of upgrading the connectivity substantially was ongoing and would be completed around 9 November.

The letter also informed students that additional broadband power had been installed temporarily: "Keycom, as of yesterday, has been able to secure emergency capacity for the flats which we have funded. We are advised that this new capacity has doubled the bandwidth available to the sites."

Many students have also been unable to use the telephones in their rooms. Keycom, who provide both the phone and internet service, have replied to complaints from students.

One reply from the company, shown to The Journal, read: “The phone service in Napier halls is still unavailable and we do not have a set date as to when it will be active. There is a lot of work still needed to be done so this could take some time.”

Accommodation officers for individual halls were able to offer help to pockets of students by providing them with new passwords and enabling the phone service.

Originally the landline service was unavailable and then the broadband proved to be inadequate, creating problems for hundreds of students as the majority of courses make use of their online repository, WebCT, for storing readings and lectures.

Callum King a Civil Engineering student at Napier who lives at the Riego Street accommodation, spoke to The Journal about the problems he faced using the service.

“All of my notes and assessments are online. I just can’t do my work.”