Apparently DSL provider Britsys and their serving CLEC New Edge Networks have gotten into quite a row, and have left a good many customers nervously clutching their modems as they await the fate of their broadband connections. According to a Britsys official, the two companies have decided to scrap their existing agreements, and subscribers are scrambling to find replacement ISPs.

Several weeks ago, New Edge Networks began calling Britsys customers to alert them that their ISP had broken a contract agreement, and that current line orders were being put on hold for an indeterminate amount of time. They informed rather shocked Britsys customers that their connection stability could be in jeopardy. During those calls, New Edge was already attempting to switch customers over to their new Britsys-esque service dubbed TransEdge.

Shortly thereafter, Britsys e-mailed all of their New Edge served customers to alert them to the fact that the problems were real, legal negotiations between themselves and New Edge were not going well, and that the companies would be no longer working together. The letter, sent out November fourth, gave customers until the eleventh to find new service. New Edge was apparently unwilling to work with Britsys to extend the time period for migrations, and customers began to scramble.

According to a statement from New Edge Networks (who notes a termination date of November 8 instead of 11), Britsys simply didn't pay their bills. "New Edge Networks has terminated its services agreement with BritSys due to nonpayment from BritSys......New Edge Networks could not continue to provide access services to BritSys without being paid for those services. So, we are offering the impacted end-users the option to migrate their service to New Edge Networks's retail services, offered under the TransEdge brand name."

The results of the scurrying are fairly apparent in our New Edge Networks forum, which is filled with customers running to various ISPs ranging from TFBNet to Speakeasy. Many users who opted to be migrated to TransEdge are still waiting, though their connections still appear to be operating well past the deadline. You can find some opinions from customers who have already migrated to TransEdge in this thread.

For customers migrating from Britsys, if you've yet to utilize our ISP Locator, New Edge Networks maintains a list of partner ISP's here. In their termination letter, Britsys recommends TFBNet for customers in California, Visionary for customers in Wyoming and Montana, and Quantum Connections for customers in the great lakes region.