IMTV ADSL business suspended over Internode legal dispute

The ISP’s chief executive, Michael Jaafar, told iTnews that the ISP had not closed for good, but that it had transferred its ADSL customer base to EFTel ‘until further notice’.

“We’ve decided to cool things off to see what happens,” said Jaafar.

“We’ve made an arrangement with EFTel to keep all our customers online at our own expense.

“We’ve had to provide some customers with wireless Internet access to keep them going until all the issues are resolved, and we’ve also refunded all our customers that paid us in advance,” said Jaafar.

Jaafar said in an earlier statement to the Whirlpool forums that IMTV’s broadband arm had been forced to cease trading ‘due to legal action’.

It is understood that Internode sent IMTV a letter in December over its alleged infringement of the ‘Extreme’ brand and orange colour scheme on its website.

Internode has trademarked ‘Extreme’ as the brand for a range of its ADSL2+ services.

An Internode spokesperson confirmed to iTnews that IMTV had been warned over the alleged trademark infringement, but said it ‘has no current legal proceedings against the ISP’.

“Internode did write a letter asking IMTV to stop using the word ‘Extreme’, which is a trademark registered to Internode,” the spokesperson said.

“Last month, IMTV agreed to remove the word ‘Extreme’ from its website.”

It now appears that IMTV’s use of the colour orange is at the centre of the ongoing dispute.

It is unclear whether or not Internode is seeking damages.

IMTV is understood to have sought legal advice.

IMTV has advised its ADSL customers to liaise with EFTel for ongoing service provision and costs.

“EFTel will possibly either churn customers away [from IMTV permanently] or if we reach an agreement with Internode we will seek to manage them again,” said Jaafar.

EFTel did not return iTnews’ calls.

IMTV gained attention from users of the Whirlpool forums late last year for affordable ADSL services and good reports of customer service.

The ISP also holds content distribution deals for mainly Arabic IPTV channels on behalf of the Bahrain-based Orbit TV and Japan’s World-on-Demand network.

Jaafar said that these arrangements are unaffected by the suspension of IMTV’s broadband business.