UK ISP Aspire Internet, which hit troubled waters in October last year after a major "commercial contractual" dispute with its broadband supplier ( Entanet ) that resulted in many customers being left without internet access for two weeks (here), has now quietly entered into Liquidation.

The Managing Director (MD) of Aspire, Tim Longton, faced heavy criticism for his firms failure to promptly resolve last year's dispute and its inability to keep customers informed about what was happening. As a result many end-users simply chose to leave the service, which created additional problems.

In law, liquidation typically refers to the process by which a company (or part of a company) is brought to an end, and the assets and property of the company redistributed. According to Companies House (Company No. 05832047), Refresh Recovery (RR) was put in charge of the ISPs liquidation on 21st December 2010. RR provides businesses and directors with advice and solutions in the field of recovery and insolvency services.

Somewhat controversially, Aspire itself sprang from the ashes of another liquidated ISP (EurISP) in 2009 (here), complete with an almost identical website and service. EurISP also suffered from a client dispute, this time with broadband ISP Fast4, during 2008.

It's understood that Entanet UK, which Aspire had its commercial dispute with last year, is on the firms list of creditors (i.e. one who is owed money) for a sum of roughly £118k. Judging by the information available, last year's dispute appears to have been the cause of Aspire's downfall.

UPDATE 18th January 2011

We forgot to mention that the public records of Aspire's liquidation showed that the ISP's MD, Tim Longton, was also on the creditors list for a pricey sum of just over £203k. A similar situation occurred during EurISP's liquidation.