After hundreds of frustrated UK customers of internet service provider Psinet Inc had endured three days of miserably slow connections to the US, an official at the company’s Herndon, Virginia headquarters said: Everything is normal across our network. And indeed a glance at the company’s online network status report gave little indication that UK users found it virtually impossible to access US web sites. It merely stated: A link between the United States and the United Kingdom will be down for approximately 15 minutes while maintenance is being performed. Customers may experiencing (sic) congestion or delays at this time. In an email to users, Psinet’s UK customer support department were more honest. The maintenance is intended to resolve the ongoing problem with transatlantic bandwidth, however we have been informed by the line provider that further work may be necessary before the problem is fully solved. As Psinet’s offices fielded endless calls from irate customers, a sad picture emerged. When Psinet first hit problems with its connection to the transatlantic cable on Monday, it switched over to an emergency 10MBPS backup satellite link. But the backup failed. So the company had to call in outside contractors to set up a new satellite link. This will, however, only give customers a half- speed connection. They will then have to wait until July 17 until a new 155MBPS line connects them with the transatlantic line.
