BROADBAND ISP Spin Internet (also trading under its other name ComCen) appears to be in some trouble following widespread user complaints on Broadband Forums.

Spin recently released a batch of ADSL2+ Plans including a total of 120GB of data for $69.95 a month, with peering data counted as off peak data. Customers however quickly reported massive congestion issues with some users only receiving 5kb/s from International sources.

Spin’s now withdrawn the plans. Customers appear to be given no real option in the emails sent out to them:

“With respect to your current plan. Unfortunately this plan has been discontinued.As you may be aware we have recently launched new ADSL2+ plans. We feel that these new plans combined with our new phone packs, offer great value. One of the highlights is the removal of the off peak quota customers can use their new data limit whenever they wish…
If we do not hear back from you by the start of your next billing cycle, you will be automatically switched back to your previous plan.”

It leaves open the question of what exactly will happen to customers who are still under contract with Spin or ComCen, and smells of the type of maneuver other ISP’s have pulled shortly before announcing their sale or appointment of administrators.

Rumour has it that their core routers are at such high load levels that they wont even generate bandwidth usage graphs. I’ve spoken to Network Engineers with Cisco qualifications that say through ping and trace routes performed on the Spin network, it’s obvious that the load level on their routers sit at 100% for most of the day.

The question is, are Spin and ComCen conducting a “pump and dump” where they accumulate as many users as possible through unsustainable plans only to sell the business a short time later, as happened with OzEmail which was aquired by iiNet.

Whatever the motive, the users are the ones suffering at the hands of poor management decisions and inadequate planning.