I get asked this question frequently - What is the best ISP in Karachi?
My recommendation to everyone these days is Maxcom. It’s a Karachi only ISP at the time being, but has great service and prices. I’ve switched to Maxcom, was happy with CyberDSL, but Maxcom is much cheaper now, and has good service too. Cybernet remains good, but at the present moment they’re priced themselves out of the consumer market.
The next question everyone asks is why not PTCL or Link.net, the two most aggressive ISP’s in Pakistan in respect to pricing and advertising.
I wouldn’t ever get a PTCL DSL connection regardless of price because their after sales technical support is slow. Uptime is far more important to me than speed, so I’d rather have a slower connection with better service. Link.net, while better than PTCL also suffers from the too much growth too fast problem.
Another common ISP in Karachi is Worldcall - I understand WorldCall has gotten a lot better now, but they’re still not close enough qualitatively to the likes of Maxcom & Cyber. I subscribed to a WorldCall cable internet connection recently at a relative’s house, but he switched over to DSL on his own accord because of frequent outages. Anecdotal evidence, but WorldCall’s cable internet network still runs like a smoker on it’s last legs, coughing and spluttering, and stopping to rest every so often.
These ISP’s are appealing as a backup, but not as a primary link. Unlink Maxcom or Cyber, they won’t compensate for service outages, which is a big negative. (In my experience, other people have managed to get compensation for outages).
I think PTCL is overselling, they’re not investing in their people or equipment to cope with the number of connections they will soon reach. I had hopes for Wateen Wimax, but they have horribly messed up their network implementation, I figure it’ll take them till 2009 to iron the kinks out and get it running properly.
After all these years of using various ISP’s in Pakistan, and considering the large customer base here - the Karachi consumer internet market is probably bigger than the rest of the country put together - it really suprised me that there is only one ISP I can recommend!
For up-to-date reports by people all over Pakistan on their ISP experiences, visit the wiredpakistan forums.
Disclaimer: This recommendation is only valid for consumer internet. For corporate links there are many companies with great service, albeit priced only for the corporate customer.
Thanks KO. Will reflect upon your views.
thanks for the help, will switch on maxcom soon.
I agree with your review about all DSL providers except Maxcom. I will not recommend Maxcom either because I had a very bad experience with them. I signed for one of their volume-based packages i.e. 8 GB volume with a speed of 512k, which according to their revised rates costs 2000 Rs. per month. I should have got a download rate of 64 kb/sec at a 512k line but it was averaging 30-40 kb per second which means the line is not dedicated at all. I have used Cybernet earlier and their dedicated line gives you 64 kb/sec. Secondly, billing is also a problem as they do not have any franchise in the city but only one office in Clifton. Thirdly, your call is often queued for a long time before answering whenever you dial their customer service. To me, speed does matter, however, good customer service also counts. So, I think for the time being, there is no such broadband service in Karachi which gets five stars in terms of cost, speed, and customer service.
I 100% agree with you KO. MAXCOM is the only top player in karachi for DSL with respect to its service and low price. I have used Wordcall cable net and was never satisfied due to continious and frequent service down problem and had a hard time dealing with it. But since I have shifted to MAXCOM 512 KB the life has never been better. its been 4 months now and only once I suffered the problem and that also was nationwide. And to add up more to their valued service the package I got was limited to 4 GB Per month but due to some new players and low cost PTCL DSL (low service quality as well) MAXCOM reviewd their packages a while ago and I am very happy to be granted 8GB permonth (which is enough for the time being for me).
Furthermore, I really would like to portray the PTCL poor service that when they launched their much hyped package of unlimited DSL, I was also caught into it and applied for 1MBPS connection on 25th of March, and after making 100 of calls (not exagerating really) and getting lame execuses like “your tests are done and your password is being generated from Islamabad” (like they have to solve a complex theoram to get my ID and password), I am still waiting for this connection (but not anymore, I dont want to literally cry)
maxcom is simply AMAZINGG nd i think everyone shud get it!
i use both Maxcom and PTCL.
MAXCOM is superb, its always on, customer support is best and above all their technical support (if line gets down) is best as well, you just have to ring them and they would sort it out sameday even if it at exchange.
i m using it in my korangi office and before that nothing worked there due to line quality.
hatsoff to Maxcom…
PTCL: one thing i like in PTCL is their speed, their support, havent ran into major issue with them therefore cant say much.
Im using Maxcom since 2006 and so far have found them excellent in terms of service and customer support, I have and would recommend anyone to Maxcom anytime!
Salam,
I’ve been using MAXCOM since 2007 and as every day passes by their service gets better and better. Now they are the offering the same packages as PTCL and LINK.NET little cheaper than the competition.
Highly recommended.
Nice blog this … came here via the blogpost Webyantra wrote about your blog
http://www.webyantra.net/2008/07/12/whats-cooking-in-pakistans-internet-web20-industry/
Glad to see all this happening in Pakistan’s technology space
Have added this to my RSS reader
yaar hamare area main to cable net hi hai aur woh bhi mara hoa. i live at safoora therefore its my helplessnes that i have to use that bull shit service and i think my cable net provider also knows that that is the reason why he keeps his net limited most of the time.