By Talia Mollett
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer
MARIETTA - Thousands of customers of Speedfactory, an Internet service provider based in Cobb County, were without e-mail and Internet access from Friday until last night.
John Morrison, a spokesman for Speedfactory's owner, NextPhase Wireless, said service was restored yesterday evening around 6 p.m. after what he described as a "technical mishap." On its Web site, the company says it specializes in providing "reliable Internet connections."
"I've been told we're still in business," Morrison said. NextPhase, which purchased Speedfactory in 2006, is based in Anaheim, Calif.
"A main router went down Friday, and then a backup router went down," Morrison said.
The company could not contact its customers, he said, because that information was tied up in the outage. Robert Ford, who is listed as the holder of the Cobb County business license, could not be reached Monday.
Frustrated clients tried all weekend to reach the company by phone, but those calls were answered with a simple recording that said "all circuits are busy."
No one was inside Speedfactory's offices at 4343 Shallowford Road on Monday afternoon. But there were people outside.
Naseem Taki was one. She was sent by her office managers at Mount Vernon Internal Medicine, which has been without access to patient records and its banking statements since Friday.
Donna Steggs, who heads the Atlanta-based seven-doctor practice, said she had been unable to contact Speedfactory. On Monday, she said, NextPhase representatives gave her plenty of reasons for the disruption, but her office was still without service. Steggs said she was told connections would resume by this morning.
"Changing our provider is under serious consideration," she said late Monday.
The city of Forest Park, in Clayton County, is also a Speedfactory client.
"It has affected every department," said Mike Blandenburg, the city's finance director. The city uses its online services for, among other things, collecting fines for traffic citations.
"We've still been taking in payments, but we had to go back to writing manual receipts," Blandenburg said. "It hasn't shut us down completely, but it has really slowed things down."
Representatives of other ISPs were also outside Speedfactory's office Monday, looking for new customers. Speedfactory charges about $33 per month for residential Internet service.
Milt Aitken, owner of Internet provider Net 2 Atlanta, sensed impending failure at his competitor. He left a note on Speedfactory's door offering to acquire its assets.
"I called NextPhase last week, and they told me it would be up shortly," he said - adding he would be happy to reconnect any of Speedfactory's customers.
Morrison, of NextPhase, said the company planned to offer a free month of service to its customers.
tmollett@mdjonline.com
Comment on this Story
Posted Comments
The outage was not technical. That is an outright lie. It is clear that due to their financial situation they were unable to pay their upstream provider and were disconnected.