I need help selecting a dedicated hosting provider somewhere in Europe. Here my story so far:

1) London would be best because most of the undersea cables from South Africa terminate there, therefore less latency than in another European country but London is also the head quarters of GCHQ. So don't want to  go there on principle byt may end up with no choice :(

2) I tried Hetzner in Germany as they have a local branch here in SA but ended up cancelling the server in 4 hours as they couldn't organise a ssh login that worked.

3) Support via email/phone should be 24/7 and good. I.e no tickets requesting me to log a ticket about my ticket. Support should understand English.

4) Local SA hosting not an option because of poor service, load shedding and stunning failure of big name data centres to stay on when there is no power. In addition I reckon hosting costs will sky-rocket with higher electricity prices and un-budgeted use of diesel generators for extended periods. I have tried nearly all the big name SA hosting companies and service sux. Hardly ever need it for dedicated servers but when you do you at least want a response in 4 hours. 

So latency and freedom from snooping are important. I am not sure who the well recognised players in Europe are. 



Any suggestions?