Hi everyone

We need some help guys. Our company runs an online hotel booking company in London UK and we are looking to open a branch in Lagos that would be selling discount flight tickets and hotel reservation worldwide to all our Nigerian customers as well as assisting customers with their Visa requirements. We have secured an office in Victoria Island and the only problem is that we can't seems to find a good and affordable Internet Service Provider in Lagos.

All the companies are saying we need VSAT or KU-Band but are quoting some ridiculously exhorbitant amounts. Even more expensive than we are paying for the same service in London!

Does anyone here have any idea of a good, reliable and affordable Internet Service  Provider for Nig?

Any help is appreciated 

@Leslexx

Unfortunately - Costs of internet access in subsaharan African are still one of the most expensive anywhere in the world - possibly due to lack of infrastructure (and i'm inclined to believe - consumer exploitation by ISPs). Most of the ISPs in Nigeria are connected to Tier1 global internet backbone via satellite (the most expensive) and being in business for a profit, would need to recoup their costs with tidy margins.

Never expect to see prices comparable or anywhere near to what you get in London.

The general rule about internet access (for corporate coys) in Nigeria - Good (Fast) + Reliable + Affordable - You can get any 2 of these to the mutual exclusion of the 3rd one.

You'll need to assess the level of quality of internet access acceptable for your business, if you only need a not so fast or reliable connection just to be able to use the internet and hook up with your reservation system when you can during the day, then you might be ok with the shared bandwidth subscription you get from most ISPs in Lagos, however if internet access is 'mission critical' to your business being set up then you'll need to look into getting your own C-band (or Ku-band which might be affected by weather changes like your dstv connection) VSAT connection and subscribing directly to Tier1 bandwidth providers from Israel, US or Europe. Regards

@paribus

My brother the answer is exploitation by this foreign companies. Can you imagine, the same company (hyperia) gave me a quote by two diffewrent people on two the days and for the same product, the monthly subscrition is over N80,000 apart!

It looks like they just decide arbitrarily how much they are going to charge customers depending the day of the week? When will our goverment realise that the only way to true ecomomic development is for them to invest in technology?

This is really frustrating you know and prevent some of us who would actually like to come back to Nigeria to try and start businesses from doing so.

Anyway, anyone who knows anything should please input.

@ poster

Paribus is right with every thing he has said. it actually depends on the services you want. dedicated or shared? moreover you can try the wimax wireless shared broadband its quite ok, fast and reliable.

let me know your choice cos with the wimax wireless shared broadband you get 24 Hrs Lower contention rate, High speed, most ideal for small and medium enterprises and high networth busy professional offices aiming at optimum results.

can you answer this question; how many systems are you planning to use with your connection?

Try www.directonpc.com
www.netcomafrica.com

they are quite reliable