Simple Truth - Some ISPs perform better than others

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 1 July 2006

If the discussions at the My ADSL forum, especially the “ADSL ISP Discussions” section, can be taken as being representative of valued opinions then some ISPs should definitely listen up and take note while others can relax and just keep up the good work.

Good advice is what makes it good. “Guys, when you have trouble with a service, please first ask questions, wait for some. If no answers are forthcoming note it in the thread after a day or so. When you come back with a thread like this one, refer to you unanswered complaint to keep it fair. This is just a suggestion to avoid possible victimization of service providers” antowan. Keep this in mind while reading through the comments that follow. In other words, take it with a ‘pinch of salt’.

On the negative side Telkom, DataPro and SAOL seem to take a lot of punches.

"You've obviously bought into the Telkom lie that ISPs control bandwidth pricing. They dont Telkom does" Nick333

"DO NOT, i repeat DO NOT choose datapro as your ISP. sure, they can provide decent prices and on paper they look very good. but try calling them to have a problem sorted out. they make Telkom look like pro's. (no jokes)" albert123

"Once again SAOL is offline, cannot send/recieve email and cannot log onto their site" PurSpyk!!

"Exactly why i don't use SAOL any longer. Cost, service levels, Downtime, Authentication problems...." LabAnimal

"theyre always down thats why i left them" ijack in reference to SAOL.

"SAOL keeps contradicting themselves all the time and they don't seem to care really about loosing a customer either. Lets all leave them see if they react the same" moklet

"This is typical to SAOL and this is why I am not using them any more" arni1954

On the positive side WebAfrica and Openweb seem to be the all-time favourites while Cybersmart and Imaginet also have something to smile about.

"Service from WebAfrica has ben stunning. Accounts are easily sorted out, I have had no downtime at all (work hours), when I run out of bandwidth I can top up with a prepaid amount via an online purchase, and my speeds are good" mohammedm

"...they are most certainly the BEST ISP by far, genuine customer service" malec in reference to WebAfrica.

"For excellent service and support - Web Africa without a doubt" VQuest

"Webafrica is without a doubt the best ISP in South Africa, you wont be disappointed" jannievdberg

"In my opinion, Openweb is the BEST ISP in South Africa. They have the best packages" cableguy

"Well done on two brilliant SA ISP's who know how to treat their customers !!!!" RazorSA in reference to WebAfrica and Openweb.

 "My openweb account was activated within two minutes, whilst speaking to Mrbeep via Msn, 21:30 at night!!!" ijack

"Their support is the best and their packages are extrmely affordable" Headstrong in reference to Openweb

 "I have been with cybersmart (3gb, 192) for almost 2 months now, and their service is realy good" zefram

"All I can say is have been very happy with Cybersmart over the last 6 or so months....not one billing glitch etc..." telkomsuig

"Imaginet have always been very efficient and helpful when I have called them, and I have not had any problems with them" JAS

So there you have it, the simple truth that some ISPs perform better than others (at least in certain areas).