Madasafish Broadband

Madasafish the friendly broadband provider offer outstanding value, high-speed packages. Madasafish are widely-accepted as the broadband connoisseur’s choice.

With 8Mb packages starting at just £9.65 a month this hyper-reliable provider is one to consider.

In this section

• Madasafish online shop
• Madasafish packages
• Madasafish awards
• Madasafish features
• Madasafish news

Services

Services

• Home broadband
• Free wireless router
• Mac compatible
• Webspace
• Security package
• Calls
• Email
• Support
• Business broadband
• ADSL broadband
• Static IP address
• Free connection
• Newsgroup access

Company history

Company history

Madasafish is a part of the larger company Brightview Group who manage 4 Internet Service Providers across the UK, making them one of the largest in the country. As a group, Brightview seek to provide simple, uncomplicated packages for a variety of domestic users.

The two London-based companies, Brightview and Madasafish, were established in 2001 and have subsequently earned a reputation of unrivalled customer support winning several highly-acclaimed ISPA awards in recent years.

For the company, customer service is paramount, both in the accessibility of their broadband service and the quality of support their customers receive. As Madasafish say “our ethic is to remain as transparent and honest as possible” and it is this that has ensured the loyalty of their substantial bank of customers.

Customer service

Customer service

You’re in capable hands with the expert support team at Madasafish, also known as ‘The Friendly ISP’. Their technical support lines are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with calls charged at 4p per minute from a landline. If you have any other queries, or just fancy a chat, their customer care team are also on hand, open 9am-6pm every day (except bank holidays) with calls costing 4p per minute from your landline.

It’s likely you’ll find most of your questions answered with their useful online help page, otherwise you can also drop the support team an email for a speedy response.

Equipment

Equipment

All Madasafish Broadband options come with a free home wireless networking kit, which is an excellent all-in-one package to help you get set-up. The kit includes a wireless ADSL router, wireless adapter, and microfilter, and should normally cost £60 but is thrown in free with your Broadband bundle.

Madasafish also include an instruction guide to help you get started, however the ‘Click ‘n Connect’ Installation wizard should have you up-and-running in no time.

Software features

Software features

When connecting with Madasafish broadband, you’ll receive a free 30-day trial of their BullGuard security software (usually £2.50 per month). This complete security suite includes anti-virus and anti-spyware protection, which will prevent viruses and identity theft, plus a BullGuard firewall, a spam filter and a backup system for storing and protecting all your important files.

For extra internet safety, Madasafish broadband customers can also download a free 30-day trial of the Parental Control software, for added peace of mind when your children are online too.

Email features

Email features

Madasafish provide free webmail to all their broadband customers, meaning you can access your email from anywhere in the world. Not only this but you will also get an unlimited amount of email addresses–good news if you have a large family, or just want a few extra for yourself.

All Madasafish webmail accounts include a useful address book for storing your contacts, and a spam filter for all that annoying junk mail. If you want to set up your own website, you’ll also receive an enormous 100Mb of webspace.

Extras

Extras

By recommending others to Madasafish broadband, you can also make some money too. Whether it’s by word of mouth, or by adding a clickable Madasafish banner to your website, every referral will earn you £20, plus £10 will be credited to your friend’s account too.

Madasafish news

• Madasafish and PlusNet merge networks
  14th November 2007
  Madasafish and PlusNet are to combine their networks and infrastructure in December, it has been...
• BT acquire Madasafish with Brightview buy-out
  6th July 2007
  BT has announced today that they have agreed to acquire Madasafish with the purchase of the...
• Madasafish without the strings
  12th June 2007
  Award-winning ISP Madasafish have announced an exciting new deal aimed at shaking up the...
• Virgin Media to cap speed for heavy downloaders
  8th May 2007
  Virgin has announced a range of capping measures for heavy internet downloaders during peak...
• Top 10 Broadband March review.
  30th March 2007
  In the world of broadband there never seems to be a dull moment, and March 2007 proved no...
• Watchdog fails to look on the Brightview
  23rd March 2007
  After the BBC Watchdog report on Wednesday 21st March was published, three of Brightview’s ISPs...

Customer reviews

• Similarly to other users, and just as expected after BT took over, this service has gone downhill. Recent slowdown in connection speed took several mails to support to fix, and even then they would not admit it was them, it just mysteriously got faster. I'm not going to phone their 0845 type support number to pay extra to talk to someone who is going to read off a long winded script with no end result. I have my phone with them as well. Moved there to get away from BT! I feel a change will soon be on the cards. I didn't mind paying for it when it was a good service, but lots of others now offer packages with unlimited downloads for less money

  Dave, 29th November 2008

• Lately I have had no broadband and when phoning for assistance they were so unhelpful. In fact one actually hung the phone up on me, as I proved to him it was not my computer at fault. I have therefore had to go back to NTL to get my broadband operating again. I also can no longer retrieve my email as you will not accept the password, and how stupid can you get by saying that you will email my password, when you cannot get in to your email.

  John friel, 4th November 2008

• Been with Madasafish for the last 4 years, but since B.T took over my speed drops to 120-320kb. every few weeks and only when you ring customer support do they put the speed back to 1.70-2.3mb. Time to change when my contract's up.

  Brian, 31th October 2008

• Completely agree with majority of comments. Madasafish were brilliant but in the last month or two my speed has reduced by a factor of 10 to 450kbps. Not had a happy experience with the Customer Service either. Next job after writing this is to find new provider!

  Michael Pearson, 20th October 2008

• Since the takeover by BT Madasafish speeds have plummeted. Leaving soon. Barely above dial-up speeds at £17/month. Disgraceful performance.

  bob swinderbury, 13th October 2008

• I have been with Global, that became Madasafish for 10 years. I signed up for their broadband package in December 07. Everything was great, never a problem. Then is September download speeds became pathetic, back to dial-up level. So after lots calls to 'customer service' (yeah right!) after about four days it was resolved, obviously their problem. Now it's happened again! So what's changed? BT!!!!!! The archetype for the arrogant, inept corporate entity that takes your money and then doesn't provide what you've paid for. I'm afraid BT has already corrupted Madasafish.

  Richard Bacchus, 5th October 2008

• Rubbish service, customer DIS-service and EXPENSIVE! Won't be renewing

  Yvonne Ornstein, 9th September 2008

• Joined original freenetname in 1999 but now that Madasafish are in control it has been total rubbish. No email and no access to my account. Tech support unhelpful "we ring you when problem fixed, may be 3 months" - avoid at all costs.

  John Swinden, 28th August 2008

• Madasfish has gone from good to bad over the last few months (since BT took over) I used to get over 2Mb download speed now it's down to 129kb. Customer service have told me it could be my router cabling but I have replaced all these with brand new cables, wall socket and modem/router. I used to get 3-4 days of poor speeds every month now the speed problem seems to be permanent.

  Brian, 7th August 2008

• This started out as a good provider compared to Orange who I was with - they were truly awful - but I think Madasafish is slipping that way too. The speed wasn't too bad for the first few months but has become noticably slower as time has gone on and I'm not a heavy user so there's no real need for bandwidth restrictions.

  What I don't like is the lack of a truly unlimited package considering the prices we are paying. Also, the customer service hours make no sense, as I do a 9 to 5 job I cannot contact them as the customer service line only runs till 6pm!!

  I have now requested a MAC code so that I can switch supplier and was assured that I would have an email with the code within an hour or so, 8 hours later, no code and no customer service to complain to!

  Eric, 23th July 2008

• I wish I had stayed with Tiscali now, I never had to pay for extra downloads. Now I'm stuck with Madasafish for 12mths.

  jacky dance, 7th July 2008

• Great service and speed when I first joined in February 2007. Since the BT take-over the speed has got slower and slower.

  The service is still great and 'they' are still helpful whenever a problem occurs.

  But all in all I am unsatisfied with Madasafish as it now is.

  I feel that this takeover is another ploy by BT to reduce competition and regain control [monopoly].

  jacee Jackson (Wimbledon exchange), 24th April 2008

• Oh dear now I'm getting worried. Like most of the posts here I was delighted with Madasafish initially but lately things have been going from bad to worse.

  Poor advice from call centre hasn't solved the problem and I'd thought maybe it was just a Vista compatibility problem, now I'm not so sure. Time to move on BUT who to? Seems to me that they are all as bad as each other!!

  Martyn (Wickham Bishops exchange), 16th April 2008

• I think that Madasafish sounds great!

  bernie (Luton exchange), 15th April 2008

• I have not only cancelled with Madasafish, but I am taking them to court. My advice is not to use these cowboys.

  Paul Hayes, 20th March 2008

• Totally agree with Mark E and V Maclean, I ve been with Madasafish for years. They are going down hill rapidly now and as for the call centre...

  Fish is definitely OFF

  Roy, 28th February 2008

• I've been a Madasafish customer for about 5 years and they have been no.1 in my experience, HOWEVER  recently (perhaps since their acquisition by BT???) things have gone down hill. The recurrent connection and speed problems I'm experiencing are making me consider switching to another provider. After so many good years though I'll wait and see if things pick up...

  mark e, 31th January 2008

• We have now been with Madasafish for the past 9 years and have never had any problems. We know of friends who have had numerous problems with other providers but I can honestly say Madasafish have been fantastic and we have no intention of changing to any other provider. I would highly reccommend them to anyone. PS almost all technical support for anything is done through Indian call centres now!

  nina (Drumnadrochit exchange), 26th January 2008

• I've just cancelled my contract with Madasafish as a result of the poor customer service they offer - two of my emails were left unanswered and I had to deal with an Indian call centre.

  V MacLean, 24th January 2008

• I got good speed and service from Madasafish at first, but now the speed and latency fluctuate making online gaming impossible. Service is poor.

  Kevin Alexander (Arbroath exchange), 17th January 2008

• Pah! How frustrating the below review is, Madasafish are without a doubt the best value broadband provider in the UK. Support is second to none and I have had zero technical problems in 10 months. You can't argue with that, plus I get a fantastic 6Mb download speed as well. I love the Fish.

  Green Man (Canonbury exchange), 9th January 2008

• I've been with madasafish for 7months nows and it was very good for the first 5 months since then its been terrible. I've been experiencing slow connections, as low as 116kbs and never above 300kbs, these days. It disconnects a lot of the time. Since PlusNet took over it has turned into a rubbish ISP. Technical support is awful too!

  steve, 5th January 2008

• I have been with madasafish now for about 2 years, using the basic package and the router which was provided. I hwave never had a problem and have always constantly been running at a speed of 7.2Gb. Which is wickedly fast and am really happy with the product.

  Cheers!

  JONNY STAPES (Chippenham exchange), 3rd January 2008

• I phoned this company, with a view to using them as my ISP, but was extremely dissappointed with their sales staff, I found them to be very unhelpful. The person I spoke to did not seem to be interested, in promoting their services at all.

  Fiona Stokes (Bridgend exchange), 2nd January 2008

• Was very good until about 2 months ago.

  Now not so great. Sometimes lose access for days - Yes days!! No response to email queries.

  Looking to change.

  woodall (Norwich West exchange), 13th December 2007

• Good speed initially, but it seems to have dropped off now. Dont know wheather it is since linking up with plus net. Although I was promised an upgrade in speed it has not materialised. Maximum download speed 1900 kb. Upload Speed 250k.    

  Alan J Burke (Mosborough exchange), 2nd December 2007

• Service, ha! If I get 480k I am lucky, it's now down to 120k. When I complain they (Indian help desk - who read scripts) point the finger at me. I have a very expensive Cisco system router and the fault is their end. After many calls and emails eventually it is corrected but only up to 480k. Why should I pay for 'upto' 8M and get 0.5M. They blame BT but won't investigate the problem. I run a business and can't afford down time and they know it so I can't 'just' switch.

  This broadband is a scam for many like me, very few get the package on offer!!! The price should be dependent on speed not throughput - then it would be fair.

  I have given one star only because that is a requirement, they deserve NONE!

  Richard Green (Exmouth exchange), 27th November 2007

• I have found this service beyond compare.

  Malcolm Chant (Redruth exchange), 1st October 2007

• I moved from tiscali and have never looked back. The service and speeds are excelent. I use xbox live most nights and I can be gaming almost all weekend and never once have i had any issues with the service. If anyone is looking for a good reliable service then look no further.

  D Letford (Stirling exchange), 28th September 2007

• I'm very pleased with the service I have received so far. A great improvement on the service I got from BT.

  C Cook (Chichester exchange), 16th September 2007

• Madasafish are great. I just hope they can keep up their excellent service now BT bought them.

  Ian Durban (Ipswich exchange), 10th September 2007

• Madasafish charged me weeks in advance, they lost my first router, then the second one sent broke, they lost the third and the fourth arrived two weeks after I lost my connection to my old ISP. Technical support is all in India and they read from a script. Any issue they don't have written down, they go off to as. Be prepared for one to two hour phone calls to chase up their shortfalls. When I said I wanted to cancel they told me they would take legal action I would not recommend their service, they need English-speaking staff in the UK with the know how.

  carlwilliams (Dunham On Trent exchange), 10th September 2007

• I have been with this company since 1998 when they were Freenetname. Even through mergers etc they have maintained a quality service. Madasafish are always open to suggestions and quick to respond to errors or bad service. Sure, like anyone they get things wrong sometimes, but not like some I could name. Hope the BT buyout doesn't affect it though.

  Andy, 2nd September 2007

• What rubbish - I do not agree with the below review. Madasafish provide me with a first class service and have done every day for the last 3 years. I have maximum "up" time, having not gone "down" for maybe 6 months and I have found the support friendly and courteous. And at less than £15 a month for a fast connection, I cannot see any down side whatsoever. Recommended,

  Helen Peterson (Exeter exchange), 29th August 2007

• The service is the worst I have ever come across, you are dealt with by foriegn staff who do not speak english properly and are very unhelpful.

  The manager actually lied to me about a payment issue, my bank told me to invoice them for the amount of time and money i wasted trying to resolve an issue..

  Do not use them.

  Paul Hayes, 29th August 2007

• I shopped around for a while before settling with Madasafish, as I’m a bit of a fussy shopper and I like to know I’m getting the best deal. So far, I think I’ve made the right choice as they offer good value and reliable service, and I’ve experienced no down-time with my connection. I’ll keep checking back though to make sure Madasafish are offering me the best deal, but for now I’m a satisfied customer.

  Paul, 9th August 2007

• I get my broadband and line rental with Madasafish and I think I get a really good deal. I’m happy because I get such a good connection speed–up to 8mb–and my girlfriend is happy as we get free evening and weekend calls. I was pleasantly surprised that a wireless kit was also included, and I didn’t even need to pay for connection, which I had to pay with my last service provider.

  Derek, 9th August 2007

• As they say on their website, Madasafish really are the ‘Friendly ISP’. Being a bit of a novice to broadband I’ve called the customer care team a few times and they’ve always been helpful–and friendly.

  Thankfully my introduction to broadband has run smoothly and I even managed to set-up the wireless router on my own, which really impressed my teenage son. I recommended Madasafish to others, as I was so satisfied with their service–and that earned me some money too!

  Jan, 9th August 2007