O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Broadband > CIA in trouble with Bell!

CIA in trouble with Bell!

Cybersurf claims Bell and other suppliers have overcharged the company, and it is in the middle of negotiating what is owed.

Not really hard to believe....
--
Electronic Box Inc.

reply to sbrook
I guess it is finally time to get rid of my IGS service and move to Teksavvy.

reply to sbrook
Weren't there rumors of a similar problem Cybersurf had with Rogers?
--
,,!,,('-'),,!,,

reply to Scoop18

reply to sbrook
Funny... iStop did the exact same thing. They paid Bell based on what they thought Bell should charge them, rather than what Bell actually did charge them. And then Bell killed iStop for non-payment.

iStop's official transfer ISP was Cybersurf, IIRC. And now Cybersurf is in exactly the same situation; they aren't paying their bills and are about to get canned.

Take my advice: switch ISPs before Bell cuts them off. Switching now is easy. Switching after Bell cuts them off can cause days or weeks without service.

From what I recall, when iStop tanked (I had switched off iStop a few months before that happened), other ISPs were given an extremely short period of time to transfer iStop customers before those customers were completely disconnected.

So, save yourself the trouble... abandon ship while you have the chance!

reply to sbrook
I am not sure what to make of this.

Cybersurf's financials have, for some time, indicated that they were not profitable yet. But I am not sure that this would indicate that they were unable to pay Bell's bills.

Making this public via the CBC will make it harder for Bell to pull the plug and put some pressure on Bell to settle those accounts.

One would need to get some insight on the scale of the amount in areers, as well as the reason for it. However, the proper procedure is to pay those buills and then contest them. Contesting them and not paying them in full is NOT proper procedure.

In the case of ISTOP, eventually, Bell Canada asked ISTOP to make a deposit of $300k and Ralph went to the CRTC. The CRTC agreed with Bell's demand since ISTOP was still not paying in full and was thus a credit risk and Bell was within its rights to demand a deposit.

So this is a story to follow. Not sure how it will unfold. But I don't think it is something to be immediate. Contrary to ISTOP, when Bell pulls the plug on Cybersurf, a lot of its operations will continue (cable, and DSL in Telus land). Not sure how they will handle DSL customers in Bell territory. (whether they will hand them over to another DSL ISP, of whether they would try to move them to cable etc.

ISTOP had also been legally structured into a numbered company that had few assets, so when Bell pulled the plug, there wasn't much in terms of assets to seize. But in the case of Cybersurf, if Bell gets nasty, it could force Cybersurf into receivership to seize whatever assets Cybersurf might have with its other operations.

But I don't think it will come to that. If Bell increases the pressure, Cybersurf might end up paying up. This will cause its cash reserves to go down faster than anticipated, but I don't think it would shut it down right away.

reply to sbrook
re: ISTOP

We don't know the full story. However, while reading the hostory of GAS for my CRTC submission, I did stumble on some explanations.

Bell Nexxia originally did not offer a "GAS" service per say. Eventually, it structured an offering as GAS with AHSSPI, and this is what was later presented to the CRTC to be made official tariffs in 2005.

ISTOP had apparantly signed contracts with NEXXIA prior to GAS being offered and NEXXIA continued to bill ISTOP at the pre-GAS rates which were higher (since Ralph was under contract). When NEXXIA was disolved, Ralph argued that NEXXIA's contracts should be made null/void and that he should be billed at the new lower GAS rates now offered by Bell Canada. CRTC decided that Nexxia was simply brought back into Bell and that existing contracts would continue under Bell.

When Bell demanded ISTOP make a $300k deposit in late 2004, the CRTC ruled in march 2005 that such payment should be made not because of the dispute dating from the Nexxia days, but because ISTOP was still not making payments in full for the now-CRTC-approved GAS/AHSSPI service. The arreers were at the tune of 1.8 million bucks.

reply to sbrook
Oh here we go again, ISTOP the story Part 2.

Maybe ol Ralphie is calling the shots somewhere behind the scenes at Cybersurf...
--
,,!,,('-'),,!,,

One thing to remember is that Cybersurf, in recent years, has purchased many different smaller ISPs (not just IGS). As they amalgamated the networks, I suspect it must have been a billing nightmare with regards to moving one domain (like "surf the net") from its own Bell account into the cybersurf main account.

Consider cases of a smaller ISP having a 3 year contract for service, and Bell continuing to bill for that service even though it would have been merged into the main cybersurf service agreement.

Consider also the possibility that some of the purchased ISPs had debts with Bell already, and Cybersurf then becomes resposible for them but won't pay them until it ensure those debts are real and not just billing errors.

There are a whole range of possibilities here. About the only way to get some insight would be if Cybersurf went to the CRTC to request a stay of execution, at which point, pubnlic documents would likely contain additional details on the nature and size of the debts.

reply to jfmezei

reply to sbrook
Man, and here I thought you were talking about our CIA

How they started (BELL i mean) soon they will get "your" CIA

reply to sbrook
I never switched because I never had any problems. Do not fix it if it is not broken. I have a static IP and everything works. I may pick up a second IP at Teksavvy, be nice to have.
--
The irony of common sense, it is not that common
I cannot deny anything I did not say

reply to Scoop18

reply to sbrook
wait wait, so will this affect my CIA cable internet?

no right?

reply to sbrook
It shouldn't effect anything accept DSL in Bell areas... Unless Cybersurf uses any Bell network lines between rogers, themselves and their backbone network.