Covad Communications Inc. has cut the high-speed connections of two Internet service providers that failed to pay their bills, leaving thousands of customers nationwide suddenly without access to the network.
Covad, which primarily sells high-speed digital subscriber lines to providers who in turn sell it to businesses and consumers, unplugged DSLnetworks on Wednesday. It followed Friday's disconnection of Internet Express.
"We've been working with them for several months to come to a resolution on their financial situation on the hopes of maintaining connections, but unfortunately it came to actually having to disconnect them," spokeswoman Suluh Lukoskie said Thursday.
Santa Clara-based Covad is not itself immune to financial woes, having laid off hundreds of workers because of financially shaky providers.
Customers of providers who lost their connection have been sent transition plans by mail, Lukoskie said. They also can choose a non-Covad provider, but that could take up to 45 days to re-establish the connection.
Dan Melmed, director of marketing at San Francisco-based DSLnetworks, said the company had payment agreements in place and Covad cut off its customers out of fear they might migrate to other DSL providers.
Officials at San Diego-based Internet Express did not immediately return phone calls, but a message posted on the company's Web site claimed Covad took the action without warning and during negotiations to resolve the issues.
In December, Covad announced 19 of its 250 partner ISPs were in financial trouble. Beyond the two that were recently unplugged, four have filed for bankruptcy protection.
Customers whose ISPs have filed for bankruptcy protection continue to have access, Lukoskie said.
"They're considered an asset once you file for bankruptcy protection," she said. "Basically the DSL service to the end-users of those four ISPs is being maintained as it was before they filed."<
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