On 14th February 2007, the industry regulator Ofcom made it mandatory for an ISP to issue a Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) to customers wanting to switch to an alternative supplier. In the month following this decision, Madasafish has noticed a dramatic increase in the number of customers migrating into their broadband service, with the number of new subscribers to the service increasing by almost a third from previous monthly sign-up figures.

Matthew Henton, Head of Marketing at Madasafish said, “It’s becoming clear under the new rules that ISPs which consistently ignore satisfaction levels and provide poor customer service are now being punished as consumers vote with their mouse – so to speak – and switch to better performing providers. We applaud Ofcom’s decision to enforce the MAC scheme as it gives broadband users the ability to change providers easily. ISPs with poor levels of customer satisfaction were typically not providing MAC codes, or even charging for them, because they had most to lose."

Although many ISPs, including Madasafish, had previously followed the voluntary scheme to make switching easy, some providers had simply refused to play fair. This forced Ofcom to act in the interests of consumers and make the migration scheme compulsory.