need a new Internet provider in NI

don_ky01

I used UTV Broadband a year or two ago, they were OK the modem was a bit tricky to setup but at least when you called the tech team they were local and we were able to understand each other. On the down side I found that the call package to be of no advantage to me and when I informed them that I was moving home I was told that because it all runs though BT that it would take up to SIX weeks to have the connection moved. During which time I would still be billed and if I canceled the contract they would still bill me for the rest of the term.
I now keep my phone with BT and use PIPEX for my Broadband. Pipex modem was a dream to set up and I have had no problems with them. I run up to 8MB with a down load cap of 15 GB which when I run over am never charged for.

I you are intrested in Pipex pm me and I will get you a referral which will get you 1 month free.

BigAl94

My vote is for Nildram, been with them for years, great customer servive (although rarely needed - once with BT line fault which BT denied but Nildram kept at them till it was sorted)

mcclim

joemardo1 wrote:

http://www.redteninternet.com/

and you get a free computer, though the monthly price is a bit over the top in my opinion.

Joe

But you do have some terrible T&C's and you have to stay with them for three years...

adonis

Im with madasafish very pleased no problems, changed from aol which was too expensive and the call centre was a nightmare.

Dammam

I'm with Zen - a higher price than some but rock solid and a uk based helpline (which makes a difference, trust me).

wifeforlife

Just to update you I am now up and running with madasafish, the t'internet is really fast and I'm only on day 2, am really pleased and no problems to report, all sorted within a week and if you go onto their website and type cheaper in the promo box you get a quid off every month

Hope you've been bombarded with loads of info and happy hunting for a great provider

Cath

claudefrog

***EDIT BY BOARD GUIDE*** Deleted information removed as quote from post***
Ronnie, do you have any fees for releasing MAC code if not happy with the services?

D.A.

Err zak, that looks suspiciously like you're plugging your own company, which if I'm not mistaken is against MSE rules.

(Folks, do a WHOIS on the domain name if you don't believe me...)

weatherwax_2

Right peeps, hope someone can help me with this problem. I have friends in NI who live on Old Ballybracken Road, Doagh, Ballyclare. They have just been given a second-hand computer which is perfectly fine, (their first one ever, so they were so excited), and decided to sign up with BT B/Band. They were told it would be up and running Wednesday week ago and since then have been unable to connect to the Internet.

They made umpteen phone calls to BT and ended up, on several occasions, being connected to an utterly polite but completely useless call centre in India. There's a lot more frustration which they have suffered re trying to resolve this, but the nub and the gist is that the blithering idiots at BT finally ended up by telling them that their connection was'nt working because they're 6 miles from the main BT centre in Ballyclare. Why could'nt they have told them this in the first place, if indeed it is true?

I've been doing a lot of research tonight on my computer and found some interesting info. For starters, when I typed in their address and phone number re accessability to B/B in NI, up came a long list of providers including BT, where NO mention was made of inaccessible locations. In fact I found some interesting statements eg ;

Northern Ireland is the only if not one of a very few countries in the world where no rural dweller is broadband technology excluded because of where they chose to live.
Northern Ireland is the first region of the UK where there is 100% availability of broadband. This is directly as a result of the government contract and investment by BT into the project.


'Enterprise Minister Barry Gardiner said NI had moved from having one of the UK's lowest levels of broadband uptake to becoming the fastest growing area.
Mr Gardiner said Northern Ireland was on track to provide broadband access to every household and business by the end of 2005.
It is the first region of the UK outside London to have all exchanges upgraded.'

I am determined to try and find a solution for my friends and wonder if there are any techies here who can confirm that BT are incompetent cretins who don't know what the hell they're talking about and can give me info to help my friends get this sorted.

If so, I'd really like to tell them to give BT the big E and encourage them to use someone else. I've heard good reports of Nildram, and as my friends are newbies re computers (but can't afford an expensive ISP), an ISP that has good customer service (with no foreign call centres or 0870 numbers!) and is really easy to install would be ideal.

Any helpful suggestions and comments will be very welcome!

D.A.

Weather, all those press releases are just spin from the government and BT. Note that they always refer to "broadband" not "broadband over the phone line" (i.e. ADSL). There are still some black spots where people are too far away from their exchange (I'm lucky in that I'm just on the edge of viability), and in those black spots, you're supposed to either get wireless broadband or satellite broadband (which, naturally, costs a fortune).

Your friends could do worse than to drop a wee email to Ben Verwaayen, the boss of BT - he won't answer it personally, but one of his minions will and to be fair to them they're very good at investigating individual cases. I can't of course give his email address here, but let's just say BT email addresses are in the form 'firstname.lastname@bt.com'.

Hope this helps.