Web America Wins Restraining Order in Gateway Battle

Web America Networks, Gateway Inc.’s former Internet
service provider partner, has won a temporary restraining order that stops
UUNet from taking over the Gateway.net
service.

Web America has provided Internet access for Gateway’s service since it
launched a little under a year and a half ago. The two companies started
sparring last week when Gateway sued Web America, claiming the ISP did not
live up to its contract. Gateway said customers often complained of busy
signals, frequent disconnections and problems accessing e-mail. Gateway is
seeking unspecified damages.

Gateway.net has more than 200,000 customers.

In a statement, Web America president Philip Midkiff, accuses Gateway of
breaking their agreement and switching providers in an attempt to make more
money.

“We pioneered a unique Internet solution for Gateway, our customer. When
they realized the potential profitability of the Internet for their
business, they began switching gateway.net customers to another Internet
service provider, despite our agreement. We have no intention of letting
this kind of practice go unchecked,” he said.

Web America again disputed Gateway’s claims of poor service, saying the
software it developed for gateway.net is designed to automatically
distribute customer traffic across several different networks to ensure the
fastest possible connections.