Posted: 07th Feb, 2006 By: MarkJ
The silence surrounding Aramiska's unexpected closure has been almost deafening, although some additional details have slipped out that hint towards the reasons for its demise.
Firstly it's been reported that Eutelsat had been in talks to buy the provider since before Christmas, but this had broken down, possibly due to not enough cash being placed on the table.
Interestingly Aramiska was already based off Eutelsat's technology through a third party, Belgacom:
So, did Aramiska owe Belgacom any dosh? A spokesman for the Belgian telco confirmed that Aramiska was a customer and also owed some cash, but declined to say how much. He added that Belgacom had "good contacts with Aramiska" and the telco "regrets the situation".The Register has also managed to hunt down one of Aramiska's former bosses, whom explained that market competition from fixed broadband services played a big part in squeezing the company out.
Much of the above is largely predictable, yet not one bit of it explains why Aramiska's management failed to inform customers sooner of their situation. Put this down to incompetence.