Come on - help me here, folks. Somethings are just distastefull, some manageable, and others? Outrightly unbearable and disgusting!

We face one too many heart aches in our land - and pokey, irating, absolutely unbearable so-called ISPs addings theirs to the suffering calls for concern.

I really don't know of you guys out there, but I'll narrate my own side of the story as experienced.

To be candid: is frasting surfing the net in our beloved country - Nigeria. I reside in Port Harcourt, and, my experiences/encounter so far with the so-called ISPs have been damn awful and ugly.

I used MTN first, got fed up, ditched them; and, as a matter of fact: MTN is just about the very worse - when it cmes to providing internet services. The next, I tried ZoomMobile; I won't say theirs posed much difficulty to make you scream(atleast you can breathe a sigh of relief after MTN's nightmare), but, just like anyone who will assess them would have this basic demerit of them: they're "unprofessional". I went on to Etisalat; in all fairness to them - theirs was "average"; when they up - they're up(even if it lasts for 10minutes), atleast within this short period of time, you can atleast "access" the net(even if is on their usual low speed. They don't have 3G, but their CS claims they do).

Alright, that's not all. The freshiest, currently trending now is:: I subscribed to MTN's BIS(Blackberry Internet Service) Weekly, last week Friday, at about 10pm, after the much throe to get started with the service(you'll call CS and have to wait for an average of one hour before you can be given audience) - they got to push/enable my BB browser, after I must have sent the HRT registion to them and did a hard reset; they pushed all the essential BB Service Books(Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo!/GoogleTalk/WindowsLive messengers, and stuffs like that icons) to my Handheld; as a matter of fact: I they sent me all the essential Service Books that came with the service(beautifying my homescreen with more icons - for beautification sake), it all ended there. When it come to me using any of the services or surfing proper - MTN just turns off the light on me. Just about nothing works! I really started having headache, migrating into migrain; because it gave me serious concern - having to pay for a service and these guys just sit on top of my money and frustrate me,

I subscribed to Etisalat's normal daily WAP internet, but when I insert their SIM their WAP browser nor that of the BB was nowhere. I had to download Opera Mini browser(via my PC) and started using. For a while: everything went on smoothly, untill I decided to download a file, I was promted with a message the says I don't have any Service Book for Etisalat, they should enable my BB browser. They don't have their WAP browser on my BB even.

So just getting a minor task done online could forever.

Some are of the view that Starcomms seems to be reliable and stable. I tried requesting for internet settings sometime from Glo, and the CS that attended said it will takes about 48hours to activate! Now that was dissauding.

Am yet to tr try Airtel and Multi-links

That has been my experience, so far.

Could you please relate what your experience, or comment/contribute your advice to this; to help us make a better informed futre decision.

Thank you.

yeah you right. MTN is a major rip off. i am using starcomms though and its ok. nothing special but u can check your mail and chat on Facebook. Damn i hate MTN and their warri customer service seems to have taking a special course on rudeness and general lackadaisical attitude towards customers

Lengthy post, Ur locatn in Nigeria matters and determines the kind of speed you get. I use and prefer MTN, enjoy it alot,

If you are within the range of 3g network,mtn is much preferable but still too expensive.

starcomms is the best isp provider in this country.

@remoranger to be fair and inorder to do justice to Starcomms, I used it in Zaria, Kaduna and Abuja and it worked fine, but where I live in Katsina, I think it is a conmplete waste of time!!!!! Its so annoying,

I am surprised that in all this you have not heard of or tried visafone, common that is the solution to your internet probs.

Unlimited download and instant connectivity immediately you purchase, it is plug & play.

it cost just N12,500 for modem and 100hrs unlimited download valid for one month.

It can be delivered to you if you want or walk to the nearest visafone shop, depending on where you live.

Regards

call 07025001118

I wish I could just read through and say nothing. But it is almost impossible.

Irrespective of your locations, one fact is clear: internet service in Nigeria is worrying.

From a personal point of view, I have used starcomms (modems), airtel (BIS), MTN (BIS) and I can say confidently that we don't have any ISP that is worth spending a dime on.

I strongly believe it is a developmental problem. A close look reveals:
1. The 'best' providers around today are GSM and CDMA providers. We don't have dedicated ISP who put all their resources into provision of dependable services.

2. In Nigeria, anything goes. We have a very poor customer relation attitude. They come up With very attractive advertisements and end up delivering nothing and they have nobody to ask them questions. How do you expect me to pay N3000 for a 30 day service, when I barely use about 17 days maximum if we break it down?

3. The irony is that we only complain. I don't really say anything to suggest that change is on the way. They are all birds of the same feather.

I remember when I subscribed with MTN after my Airtel subscription expired, hoping to get better service. And what did I get? Your guess is as good.

you guys are really funny. you don't want to be realistic for once. you want to do everything online in this country? with which ISP?
yes! they claim to have 3G while they don't and so? now that you know what will you do about it?
you have to tell your self the truth in order to enjoy and appreciate what your country have at the moment.
where i stay GLO and VISA work fine for me. in my office (Cyber cafe) i can only download heavily when there are no customers, meaning am the only one pulling the whole C-band bandwidth (dedicated) which of course will be very fast because am the only one using it.
talking of my GLO and VISA, i use my glo only when i just want to browse at home, email, Facebook, twitter, research, download small eBooks and small online activities but once i want to download at home, i use my VISA evdo (esp midnight). I'll just click download then go and sleep till morning.

I am beginning to think is online video business is really feasible in Nigeria,  So sad

For now i can't only but say that we are yet to get there. hope you have other means of income? while you keep trying your online video business.

Is the OP a visitor to Nigeria?
Frankly, I think it's neither here nor there. I have used mobile internet in some other countries and haven't been particularly impressed. Nigeria's case is particularly difficult, as the networks are not usually dimensioned to cope with the traffic they experience. It's always a case of catch up between supply and demand.

However, fixed internet is improving, we now have Main One and Glo-1, and with the coming of WACS cable, we should have more internet bandwidth available than we ever have. The last-mile connections will eventually grow to meet demand as well.

collins465:

you guys are really funny. you don't want to be realistic for once. you want to do everything online in this country? with which ISP?
yes! they claim to have 3G while they don't and so? now that you know what will you do about it?
you have to tell your self the truth in order to enjoy and appreciate what your country have at the moment.
where i stay GLO and VISA work fine for me. in my office (Cyber cafe) i can only download heavily when there are no customers, meaning am the only one pulling the whole C-band bandwidth (dedicated) which of course will be very fast because am the only one using it.
talking of my GLO and VISA, i use my glo only when i just want to browse at home, email, Facebook, twitter, research, download small eBooks and small online activities but once i want to download at home, i use my VISA evdo (esp midnight). I'll just click download then go and sleep till morning.
For now i can't only but say that we are yet to get there. hope you have other means of income? while you keep trying your online video business.

what are you talking about? Appreciate what? - Mediocrity or Incompetence? There are some businesses that require steady internet connection that cannot survive in Nigeria because of the ineffectiveness of our ISPs and you are saying people should be quiet about this and just swallow this rubbish?

well, for now, and for where I stay, among all the inefficient ISP's, starcomms rocks! I have both MTN slowfast link but hv have dumped it for starcomms cos MTN is so annoying!

Guys just walk across the W/A coast. Liberia and ask of Cellcom. The services of this telcoms giant in that country is bar none compared to Nigerian operators. We have to start doing sumting about the DSTV fr33 bröwsing.

IPNX is the answer to ALL Internet Service problem in Nigeria

visafone is the best follow by starcomms i use both connection though i gave out my starcomms software instead of keeping it idle.i have been using visafone since its inception and starcomms is a substitute should i did not want to pay 7k for visafone's 8am-9pm i opt for starcomms 100hrs for 6k5.

EverJ I also live in Port Harcourt and have had the same experience. I even used Mobitel before they died. What I have realised is that mobile phone operators are not the best internet service providers. This is because it is not their primary service. I suggest you look for a service provider whose primary service is internet provision i.e an ISP. I recommend IPNX. I have been using them for about 6 months and they are very reliable. I even do skype video calls. The one that really impressed me was when they were down for about 1 day due to a fibre cut. The day was credited back. I do not think MTN will ever do that.

I think Starcomm is the best ISP in Nigeria at the moment but their shortcoming is that they are not all over Nigeria.If you want to enjoy your cyber surfing,switch to starcomm dude

@poster,

You may either  be living underground or your internet career is jinxed. While u comsider MTN as the worst they remain the best in all ramification. Consider relocating,

Your BB not getting service books - your device may have been bricked somehow. As you pop any Bis enabled sim into a BB it automatically registers and download the necessary service books for your applications. Speaking from experience, at least this is my fourth BB now and I'm flexing it.

Generally there is no where in the world where you don't get drop in calls, temporal internet and all. Infact you need to go to the US and try using AT&T in Illinois and see how much drop calls you get. Although we all hunger for perfection, but they are trying. MTN don't joke with its business oo. They have the best GSM telecom infratructures in Nigeria. Glo is just useless.

MTN made me throw my 3G away. A few times they impress you, but the bulkiest of the times, they frustrate you. When you need it the most, you subscribe for a plan and you get no response for activation until you've fallen asleep after long boring waiting time.

That's even better, what about not being able to enjoy 2 complete hours of browsing out of 24 subscribed hours?

In my office,we use 21t Century technologies.
At best it's decent,nothing fantastic.Playing streaming clips over the 'net is difficult.
At home what haven't I used?
Etisalat-One huge joke:their modem hardly ever stays connected to the internet.
MTN fastlink recorded better stability thatn the Etisalat ,but since February this year I haven't done anything tangible with MTN.
Starcomms,Multilinks,Glo. . .all ineffective really.
I hear iPNx is good but the cost is rather prohibitive to me. . .

@Poster,

Nigerian ISPs are not doing that badly, especially when you consider the Logistic and Infrastructural challenges they face.

lol, here is my story,
my first internet home plan was visafone  1X,  was fairly ok 4 me then  abt 8KB/SEC.

used it 4 abt 4months b4  they had major issues,  network  was slower than a snail. switched to zoom, 1X,  speed was still fairly ok,  but service was unreliable,  used the shi.t 4 abt 5 months, then  they  had  issues, network got too slow, i ditched dem

learnt that visafone  now had 3g/evdo  in ph, bought the 3g modem, it  was  ok, speeds  of  30kB/sec, then heard of multilinks  and  their downloading speeds of 90KB/sec, bought their 3g modem, it was  ok, used it specically  4  my torrents.it was faster than visafone in downloading toorents.

ok  i forgot,  i tried the mtn 3g modem too, subscribed for night plan 2wks ago, the cr,ap doesnt work, heard that they r having issues  presently, but the painful thing is that they wudnt credit  the lost time/days  2 ur acct when ever the problem is rectified!!!


multilinks has a lil problem in that it stops opening web pages if u leave it un attended for long, say like 2hrs.u gotta discoonnect and reconnect again 4 u to continue surfing, n that is a big problem if u r downloading large files or  torrents, like all tru the nite,

but in terms of cost, its cheaper than visafone, 250hrs cost 9600, while visafone 250hrs  cost 15k!!.

though a lot of people hv complained that mu;tilinks billing software  is fraudulent, if u borowse  for 5hrs, it  might debit u  17hrs!!!.

a guy complained on nairaland  how  his 50hrs  finished in 1 day!, and  there is only 24hrs in a day, he reported to CC, YET  NO BODY CUD EXPLAIN HOW IT HAPPENED

when i was around i used multi links was alright

i thot it was only me
my MTN BIS  is total rubbish- took me two hrs ystday trying to open a webpage- MTN sucks bigtime

i heard ipnx  is  fantastic, but
1.  the initial cost is too high, abt 30k

2.  maybe  its  fast cos they dont hv many subscibers  due to their high cost, once people  join, the speed might drop.
3. the ipnx  modem  isnt  mobile,  i heard u cant carry it about.

all these isps  shud try n refund  back airtime/days whenever they hv probs,  that is what we r saying, we all know  they r prone to having probs  but  in uk/us, they always refund  u  the  downtime  days/airtime,  too bad  there  is  no watch  dog  monitoring all this  sh,it.thats    y u can travel 4  2 months  and  phcn  will still be  giving u bills, ie  if u hv the old  meters.

my mtn 3g, i ust keep am  for free browsing, thats the only way i can get back my money that mtn  has  taken  due  to   no  service!.imagine  my 2500 going down the  drain 4 nuthin!!

most companies u have mentioned major in voice communication and not data communication.21st century is a very good isp which remain for now the king in the industry.most banks if not all employ their service for its data communication with either their HQ or interswitch. the internet/data communication most of these so-called-isp you've mentioned provide are just for you to manage but if you need to enjoy real browsing walk up to 21st century for some bandwidth.

i wonder if u guyz have heard abt MOBITEL 4G NETWRK, im loving it!!!!!!

Starcomm stands to be the best so far from feedbacks I have recieved from my customers. I sell magic jack phones all around the country for making free and unlimited phone calls to US and Canada and other magic jack owners. Users of magic jack tell me that the call quality is very good when you have Startcomms internet and even better than making calls on their mobile phones.

jerrybenchi@yahoo.com

I just changed home ISPs to Swift Broadband, for my home service. Not bad at all. But its always like that when they first start, and there are very little subscribers on the network.

In Addition to MTN's poor service, they put all their customers on blocked IP and as such you cannot send out email. It is too bad.

i think it's the naija factor, we just manage no matter what. right now, i'm managing glo 3G plus. i've been through several ISPs- starcomms (cdma and izap), multilinks, zain, mtn but not without hiccups. starcomms izap is the best imo.