OT: internet infrastructure - any alternatives to Hot and Bezeq?

[geoffrey mendelson]

On Jan 21, 2010, at 2:08 PM, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Sorry for OT post, but since questions regarding cellular ISPs get
> good traction I'll bother you with a general Internet question, too.
>
> Are there any alternatives in Israel to Hot and Bezeq in internet
> infrastructure provisioning business (private, not business)? Frankly,
> I am quite appalled by the level of customer service either of these
> provide (I do not have any significant technical issues, it's customer
> service and infrastructure that drives me mad). I am willing to
> consider alternatives, but I don't know of any, and I tried to
> google... ;-) Anything at all? Abandon all hope?


Hot has what they call "buisness class" service. If the outage is  
regional, they can't help you any more than the regular customers, but  
it it's local. they are very different. In February I found after  
shabbat that my internet was down. My next door neighbor and I both  
called at about the same time for the same problem, he was told they  
would be out on Tuesday, I was told later that morning. 15 minutes  
later a tech called saying he was on his way, he arrived 15 minutes  
later and spent an hour and a half in the rain fixing it. He said  
since I had his number from the phone call, I could call him with any  
problem.

About a month later, I gave up and installed a 2.5mbit aDSL line as a  
backup. I chose 012 as my ISP and it was unusable except for low level  
web surfing, etc. I upgraded to the "gamer's" package and it has been  
a lot better. I can run bit torrent, high speed downloads, VoIP and  
general web surfing all at once and if I choose carefully really do  
get my 2.5mbits worth of download speed.

In plain English Oleg, this is Israel, and you get what you pay for,  
nothing more, and often a lot less. :-(

BTW, there has been construction in the neighborhood with someone  
running cable up the street. I don't know if it's HOT upgrading their  
infrastructure, BEZEQ installing NGN, or someone completely different,  
but in the last two weeks I have had several outages, some lasting for  
hours, and both at the same time.

Geoff.


-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge  
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