Aramiska, a Dutch company that offered satellite access to the Internet for users in remote locations across Europe, went into liquidation and shut down all its services on Friday. The move appears to have taken the industry by surprise, and left users - including some whose business depends on online orders - without Internet access. Users are angry about the short notice of the closure.
The UK is one of the countries hardest hit by the closure, where Aramiska served around 200 rural communities in partnership with wireless Internet service provider Ehotspot. A notice on the Ehotspot website says:
Ehotspot was informed that Aramiska (our satellite backhaul provider) has gone into Liquidation. We received the following message at 10:05 on the 27 January 2006: “We regret to inform you that Aramiska and its services are shutting down and the company will be unable to provide you with internet access after today, 27th of January 2006.”
All networks that are currently running of a satellite backhaul were switched off without ehotspot knowing at 15.30 today. Ehotspot is currently looking for a solution to get all networks back up and running with a new provider as soon as possible. We will be contacting all users by a letter in the coming days. Ehotspot would like apologise for this loss of service which is beyond our control.’
For those seeking an urgent solution, we have received the following information from Andy Frost at UK company Satlynx:
After hearing the news about Aramiska we have instructed all staff at Satlynx to assist in the rapid transfer of accounts where ex-Aramiska customers turn to us or our Value Added Resellers for alternative service.
Our resellers in the UK & Ireland are as follows:
- Avonline
- AVC
- Broadbandwherever
- Bentley Walker
- Excelerate
- MediaSatellite
- Digiweb
- E3
- Pure Telecom
- Servicesat
Other non-UK based VARs are Europe-wide and a list of these is available from our website: http://www.satlynx.com
Customers with any concerns about the longevity of Satlynx will be pleased to learn that Satlynx are majority owned by the SES group.
Other solutions: The Community Broadband Network has put together a handy list of suppliers, grouped according to whose service they are reselling.
on Jan 30th, 2006 at 16:46
Looks like some of the same reasons why Loral crashed and burned.
You overprice something, and you have a small number of loyal clients but at the end of the day they can’t and will never be able to pay the bills.
on Dec 31st, 2009 at 21:47
This sounds like a bad situation for people who are relying on this net service. What are the customers suppose to do? I can’t see how it’s legal to just shut down without giving notice to any of your clients. I’m appalled by what I’m hearing, and hope this situation is being taken care of.
on Jan 1st, 2010 at 15:13
er…yes it was. This story is three years old. Happy New Year
on Jan 1st, 2010 at 15:48
This appears to be a spam comment which I overlooked. The latest trend is to make seemingly sensible comments on a particular story, while making sure to include the URL of the website they want to promote. In other words, spammers pose as legitimate users of the weblog. But once spotted, I can delete the web address from the message (as I have done here) or delete the whole message - many of them are totally bland (e.g. thanks for an interesting post). I also have a growing blacklist, so repeat offenders have their messages automatically deleted and I don’t have to look at them! But now and again, one slips though the net