SuperNerd purchases Blitz customers
2008-Jun-26, 10:00 pm
UPDATE Saturday | SuperNerd has published a FAQ for affected customers. Those contacted by M2 Telecommunications regarding their phone service have now got until the end of Monday to sort out their service.
UPDATE 2:30PM | SuperNerd director George Pezzutto has warned that it cannot help a portion of Blitz customers with certain types of services. For those with phone services through M2 Telecommunications, they must make a decision whether to take up a phone service with M2 directly, or risk losing their ADSL1 broadband connections (ADSL can only be kept active if there is a working phone service). M2 advised that phones would be disconnected at 5PM today if people did not act to move their service.
Pezzutto also admitted that there were between 200 and 300 ADSL2+ services provided through PowerTel that could not be restored, as AINS/SuperNerd does not have connectivity to PowerTel. "I personally suggest they seek alternate solutions", he said.
Blitz customers with queries can now contact SuperNerd for assistance, and there is a plan to offer a live chat on the Blitz website for those with Internet access. As a sign of good faith, SuperNerd would not be billing any former Blitz customers until 1 July, he said.
Pezzutto said that much confusion has been caused by comments by the administrators, who he claims are only involved in the phone service part of Blitz. The administrators were not able to comment on any broadband services, he said.
UPDATE | Australian Internet Solutions (AINS) claims it has purchased the broadband customer base of troubled ISP Blitz Telecom under its SuperNerd brand, in a last minute deal.
Parts of Blitz Telecom was put into administration earlier this month after running into financial trouble. Many customers have been without broadband connections for days.
AINS director George Pezzutto told Whirlpool that the deal, for an undisclosed amount, was completed late this evening after negotiations fell through to sell the customer base to another party. The deal only involved broadband customers, and not any of the voice services, he said.
Pezzutto revealed that Blitz customers were actually churned to AINS "some time ago" at its own cost, as it was trying to assist the now defunct deal. When that fell through, AINS decided to take on the customer base itself.
"AINS has been supplying the Blitz Internet customers with connectivity (on its spare capacity) from when the previous wholesaler I-seek ceased supply of service (approximately the 18/06/08)", said Pezzutto. "As of tomorrow we will be turning up capacity to bring the service to a higher grade."
Customers that are currently without working connections will be reconnected "as soon as humanly possible", he said. "We are trying to keep things are smooth as possible, with the least amount of disruption. We know they've been through hell and back." Pezzutto said that AINS has employed "a number of the key personnel" from Blitz to help with the transition.
Pezzutto said that it was too early to know whether plans would be maintained as is, but said that AINS did plan to continue with service benefits such as PIPE access and the enhanced news server.
Links:
- Blitz in financial trouble (Whirlpool, 17 Jun 2008)