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URGENT Announcement for Meganet Communications Dial-Up Users in Massachusetts.
NOTICE:
This announcement is in regards to Dial-Up Internet Service in Massachusetts ONLY. It does not affect dial-up service in any other region, nor does it affect any other services Meganet Communications offers.
On Monday April 24th at approximately 6PM Meganet Communications and numerous other ISPs serving the Massachusetts area were informed by Global NAPS, Inc., a major provider of Telecommunications Services to ISPs, was involved in a dispute with Verizon Telecommunications. This dispute apparently has been going on for several years unbeknown to the general public, Meganet Communications and many other ISPs. The notice delivered to Meganet Communications informed us that the ongoing dispute has not been resolved and as a result Verizon would be shutting down call routing services that Global NAPS uses to provide dial-up Internet service to ISPs as of 12 Noon on Tuesday April 25th. Without intervention by the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications & Energy (DTE) or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), we anticipate that the Verizon disconnection will occur. This discontinuance of service by Verizon and Global NAPS not only affects Meganet Communications and dozens of other smaller ISPs, but may also impact the operations of AOL, EarthLink, and Prodigy.
Upon learning of this news Meganet Communications immediately contracted with an alternate provider so that any prolonged downtime of the Meganet Communications dial-up Internet Services would be avoided. Essentially Meganet Communications has been forced to switch telecommunications carriers with less than 18 hours of notice. This is typically something that would take days if not weeks to accomplish, but due to Meganet Communications' earlier research of alternate providers we are able to get an alternate provider in place within 24 hours. We are hopeful that the alternate provider integration will be completed before noontime on April 25th, however there is the possibility that the integration work may not be completed until several hours later.
Once the new carrier is in place and the Global NAPS dial-up network is no longer available to us, dial-up users in Massachusetts only will be required to make several changes to their dial-up configuration as follows:
1. Users will need to select a new access number from this list. Please be sure to confirm with your local telephone service provider that the access number you select is a local call for you and that using it will not cause you to incur any long distance or local usage telephone charges. As always, Meganet Communications is not responsible for any expenses you incur as a result of using a number that is not local and free of charge according to your particular telephone service arrangement with your telephone company, regardless of how you may have obtained the access number from Meganet Communications.
2. Users will have to use a different username format for their dial-up connection ONLY! The format will change from the simple username format to the username@meganet.net where username is your dial-up username.
**NOTE** If you were originally:
- an NAISP customer you will use @naisp.net
- an Empire.net customer you will use @empire.net
- an ABCISP/Xpres.net customer you will use @meganet.net
- Existing Meganet customers will have to add @meganet.net to their usernames
Meganet Dialup Number Locator
We recommend that customers select a new access number now and make note of the changes that will be needed, but continue to use your existing access number and username format until it no longer works.
We anticipate that our call volume over the next several days may be high due to this unforeseen situation and would appreciate all customers making a strong effort to make these changes on their own before calling for assistance. Also, given that the Global NAPS service may cease to function before the replacement service is in place, we would request that customers wait until after 6PM on April 25th before calling for assistance or to report any difficulties with the new service. We anticipate that the new service will be in place no later than 6PM on April 25th
We apologize for the short notice of this announcement and appreciate your patience and cooperation.
If you would like to read the correspondence between Verizon and Global NAPS, Inc. and the various agencies relative to this matter, you can see them here:
United States Court of Appeals For the First Circuit, 4/11/2006
Verizon Demand Letter, 4/14/2006
Global Naps Response, 4/18/2006
Verizon Response, 4/20/2006
Global Naps Response, 4/21/2006
Verizon Response, 4/21/2006
Global Naps letter to customers, 4/24/2006
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