Saw this in the papers recently, I think Nigerians should learn how to say no to corporate stealing like the one below. Does anyone have a similar experience?

Dear Editor,

Thank you so very much for providing hapless Nigerians an opportunity like this to air their views on the situation in the country and the world at large, without such a vibrant and authoritative medium a lot of corporate cheating and injustice would never see the light of day in this country. My Encarta dictionary defines fraudulent as "designed to deceive, not honest, true or fair, and intended to deceive people". Yes, fraudulent that is the summary of Starcomms Internet service in Lagos.

I have used Starcomms 24 hour Internet service for the last 9 months and it has been a horrible experience, I have not bothered to change them because my friends on other networks have the same sorry tales to tell. As soon as you go on line with the Starcomms air card, a message pops up saying 'STARCOMMS IS NOW CONNECTED, SPEED 115.2 KBPS' (I beleive kilobytes per second), with this speed you can do most of the things you want online except maybe download audio or video files promptly. Unfortunately, the air card can actually be checked for the real speed it is doing, simply divide the time shown by the number of bytes downloaded for the given time and you get the actual speed of download. For the nine months I have used Starcomms, they have never done more than 5 to 10 kilobytes per second, even when browsing right under their mast. The problem can't be with my laptop because I have used the same system in the UK and the USA with both broadband wireless and dial up connections and the speeds are usually awesome. I challenge Starcomms to prove me wrong, by going on live television to actually show that they have speeds anywhere close to 115.2 kbps. It takes over 20 minutes to open an Internet page with Starcomms air card.

The problem with Starcomms is that of greed and disregard for installed network capacity, they have been aggressively marketing and expanding their subscriber base without a corresponding increase in network capacity, again, I challenge Starcomms management to go on air and prove me wrong on this point. Am also sending a copy of this letter to the toothless telecommunications industry watch dog, I don't know why everybody has been praising them.

Somebody should please call Starcomms to order, they should stop making spurious and fraudulent claims, I wish it was possible to sue them and collect all the money they have been collecting from me without any service.

Nigerians must learn how to complain, not only about inept governments but also about corporate thieves who make fraudulent claims and behave as if they are doing customers a favour by been in the market. It is also worthy of note that the same Starcomms has the most lousy, in fact near non existent customer care center amongst the PTO's. My only prayer is that the market be deepened to accommodate more players who will provide competition and force corporate dupes like Starcomms off the face of the earth.

Blablabla,

I have the same experience.

If you decide to take legal action you must study the terms of the contract to see if there are any disclaimers to disruption of service. At the time you took the agreement did Starcomms promise to supply 115kbps or did they keep it open? I haven't read the agreement because the one I use is in the office. I use Intercellular and it is the same thing. The download speed indicated is certainly not what occurs.

Do Broadband users experience the same thing?

One thing is certain, consumers are taken for granted and very little is done about it. I

I'd like to see the responses this thread gets.

they do this most times because they understand the Nigerian psyche which is, complain complain but in the end they wont do anything.

i use d evdo 24 hrs card and them no born them well make them dupe omo eko like me

call their customer care 2 complain abi? na wetin i dey do if i notice any anomalyt

blablabla:

close to 115.2 kbps. It takes over 20 minutes to open an Internet page with Starcomms air card.

20 minutes!!!!
u sure say d bros pc no get fault? when there's high network, d stuff 's verty fast

"STARCOMMS IS NOW CONNECTED, SPEED 115.2 KBPS' (I beleive kilobytes per second)"
well starcomms have thier down times but first of all its not kiloBYTES per second its kilobits per second! so 115kbps is actually 14KBPS, note the difference (KBPS kiloBYTES/ second while kbps is kilobits per second) kbps is 8 times KBPS. so for the aircard you should not get downloads faster than 14KBPS! i'm a network engineer and i know the technical aspects of it.

Now for the EVDO, in my opinion it is the best ISP service available in Nigeria because it costs 16k/ month and i have actually gotten download speeds of up to 585kbps! or 73KBPS. Try getting a vsat to give you 512kbps and see how much it costs. i personally know of one that gives KU band VSAT 64kbps for 64 thousand a month! if you want to talk of rip off go to those VSAT guys.

The only advantage a VSAT setup has over the Starcomms EVDO is it available anywhere in Nigeria while EVDO is available only in certain parts of major cities.

for the record i use starcomms EVDO and know of nine other subscribers (friends of mine) who are happy with the speeds. the only problem i have with starcomms is the recent signal fluctuations which have been attributed to the upgrades which they are doin. these upgrades will provide better speeds which is for the benefit of the subscriber but i, like any other subscriber don't like down times.
hope this helps you.

thanks

yes they do dupe ppl because they are arrogant and self centred. Just 2 day i paid for my 24hrs internet connection and i was promised it would be up and ready in 2 hours time. Mind u, i paid around 11.30 am and as i write on this forum, it has yet to be activated. Calling the customer care to ask what went wrong, you would here a reply that they only operate btw 7am and 9pm. what kind of telecoms company operate for only 14hrs in a day?

Truthfully by 2 morow, if by noon am not connected, am going to take civil action against them. They tend to forget that the customer is always right as long as your collecting my money and not giving me my services, the criminal code provides for fraud under section 419 and 420. Also the NCC, tables the complaints of consumers and deals with the erring company, so ppl dont be afraid, dont let them intimidate you, vent out your anger and let's stop being complacent, if starcomms wants to be the scape goat on behalf of the telcoms industry, let them be our guest.

AH MY L[b]I[/b]A[/b]WYE[b]R IN PROGRESS. . . TAK IT EASY NOW!


I DONT LIKE ANYOF THESE NETWORKS BUT I CAN BET THAT THE HELP CENTER WON'T GVE U RELEVANT 411 ABT UR DATACARD.

ALL THE INFO U ARE TO USE IS ON THE PACK OF THE DATA CARD. I ALSP HAD THIS PROBLEM TOO. THE HELP CENTER WILL GIVE U ANOA NUMBER 2 USE AS UR PASSWORD WHICH WONT HELP U

we also use starcomms 24hrs internet connection at home although its fast but there are frequent fluctuations in their network and that can be so annoying especially when you are in a hurry. but generally, their network is good compared to others i have seen.

I said in anotehr post that starcoms is crap!!! though it seems ( I have not used it ) the EVDO is better
try
www.iwirelessng.com

or
www.netcomafrica.com