By: MarkJ - 31 March, 2009 (7:05 PM) - Score: 8866 - Fixed Line Broadband

The Sheffield-based UK ISP Prodigy Internet, which has been in trouble and fined £30,000 by Ofcom before over its chequered history with handling broadband migrations (here and here), has now seen its service taken off-line after supplier BT Wholesale and regulator Ofcom were unable to contact them.

Customers, many of which have also had trouble reaching the historically troubled provider, are currently being greeted by a "walled garden" page when they connect. The supplier (BT) imposed website essentially offers advice to help users either cease their service or obtain a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) for switching on to another ISP.

We note that the Thinkbroadband forum also has a LONG THREAD running on the subject, which hints that some customers are having difficulty gaining their MAC's from the walled garden site. In that situation we would recommend contacting BT directly about the issue.

In the meantime it's believed that the ISP may have been in financial difficulty and unable to pay its bills, unfortunately nobody seems able to successfully contact them for confirmation or comment. Typically poorly maintained smaller ISPs are likely to bear the brunt of the UK's aggressively competitive market.