By Will Sturgeon, 27 January 2006 17:10
NEWS
Satellite broadband provider Aramiska today informed customers it is shutting down, giving many just a few hours to find an alternative service provider before the service ceased at 15:00(GMT).
In the case of customers in remote and rural areas Aramiska's satellite service has at times been the only option for those too far from the nearest broadband-enabled telephone exchange or cable networks.
Now those customers must look elsewhere.
An email from Aramiska, sent out at around 10:00(GMT), stated: "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."
One aggrieved customer, Neil Boreland, told silicon.com that email notification left him with just a few hours to find an alternative provider.
He added: "I wonder how many rural businesses are going to go bust because they rely on satellite broadband supplied by this company.
"I think it's absolutely disgusting that customers who have been paying a premium for these services are given such little notice."
Aramiska, in association with a company called eHotspot, provided wireless internet access to 200 rural communities around the UK. It also provided connectivity to community broadband schemes up and down the country.
Nobody was answering the phones at Aramiska. eHotspot didn't respond to enquiries from silicon.com.
Angry customers confirmed to silicon.com that at 15:00(GMT) the service went down.Jamie Binns wrote in an email: "Today's been by no means a great day for us. We had a transitional period in which service has been reduced but we've been in the fortunate position of having a number of different internet connections in place which has meant we were flexible enough to cope. I feel for all those customers out there who were relying on Aramiska to provide a business critical service.
"Five hours notice to cease such a service is a joke; I don't care what the circumstances."
If you are, or used to be, an Aramiska customer we would love to hear your thoughts. Post a Reader Comment below or email us at editorial@silicon.com.
Comments
There are 14 comments. Join the discussion
1. David Harington
Anyone know why so little notice?
2. Lindsey Annison
The Community Broadband Network is offering help and solutions to all those affected, which includes many community networks and rural businesses. We are speaking to many suppliers to find solutions, and also to Aramiska to keep everyone up to date about the situation. www.cbncan.co.uk for more details, news and the discussion forum.
3. Mike Tkachuk
We had service prepaid for next 1.5 years on maximum 3 mbits, inlcuding hardware and installation cost (Ukraine) it's like 15 000 euros, and now all this money just gone?!
4. Peter Reed-Forrester
Hi,
We are a WISP who were a MAJOR customer/user of Aramiska services.
Fortunately, we were already a long way down the road of changing supplier (saw & recognised the writing on the wall !!) and as such, are already implementing that change.
Should any affected ex Aramiska customers in either Spain or the UK want to contact us, we would be happy to give them information about our immediately available/deployable alternative solutions.
5. Suzanne Savage
I host a small wireless broadband hotspot in rural worcestershire. With aramiska's surprise failure yesterday, we are all back to the stone age of dialup(I am currently connecting a whopping 37K!)
It is shocking that a major provider can go belly up with no notice. Perhaps more disturbing, however, is that our contract is thorugh ehotspot, and they also failed to see the writing on the wall.
I have no idea what we will do. Several of us here run our businesses from home, and the impact on our productivity will be crippling.
6. Stephane REMOND
We are a french company, in Burgundy, and we discover at 10 AM the mail of ARAMISKA and at 17 AM the service stop.
We are very schocking by the decision of this society which has provided untill today a very good service... We do not understand the reasons of that decision and we condamned such matter.
Now it's the run to migrate th domain name to another ISP in order to recover a normal mail service and Internet acces.
We are very angry vs ARAMISKA and we hope that all the clients will act in justice vs them.
7. anonymous
people without web visit www.silicon.com & complin, er...ok
8. Joseph Brennan
This is very poor customer relations and has left many people in awkward positions. If more warning was given the migration to another supplier would have been easy but now many people will jump to the first company they find which will only lead to further problems in the future. I'm guessing no one from Aramiska is going to show up at my house looking for the equipment so is there anything that can be done with it to put it to some use. I've seen some companies will reuse the dish but what about the boxes? Any suggestions.
9. Antonio ElĂas
Im a angry costumer that this notice was a surprise last friday afternoon. I live in a small village in Guadalajara, Spain, an Aramiska was my unique way to be online. The worst of all, i prepaid my conection the last 16 th on January, 2.475 € of one year. I dont understand the reasons of that decision and i condamned such matter. Im very angry vs ARAMISKA and i hope that all the clients will act in justice vs them.
10. abu
I have to move out of my home until this outage is resolved. For those that rely on broadband ( as opposed to to narrowband) IT IS like loosing your electricity supply...
RESPECT to all those working on a new solution.
11. Dan Kantorowich
Apart from the obvious, that is feeling like you've been kicked in the stomach, we have to look forward. There might be some assets left in Aramiska or there might be an opportunity to claim recompense from their backers. It would be useful if the ex-Aramiska customers formed a union to launch a legal action. The costs of course would be shared and thus not prohibitive. My guess is that Aramiska is hoping that everyone is too busy earning a living to go after them.
12. Nigel Bates
I would definatly be interested in joining any group that will go after Aramiska, if it proves they have enough assets to sell to provide compensation. They have let us down badly.
13. JMM
Perhaps I was one of the lucky ones. Avonline came to my rescue and I'm now back online. I always thought the offer of spreading the cost of an expensive terminal and a very low monthly cost was generous, it must have killed Aramiska to do this. I now learn that the unlimited offer cannot be done on satellite bandwidth so I signed with a provider who can offer a robust solution at a fair price.
Backed by Satlynx (who are owned by ASTRA) I chose a provider who has a good business model and a secure future. No more "special deals" and "free hardware" for us :-)
JMM
14. Anonymous Student
They were a rubbish ISP anyway. Always cutting out when the weather was bad. Hopefully we'll have a faster, more reliable internet service next time.