August 7, 2002 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Bankrupt telecommunications services provider E.spire Communications Inc. was ordered by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to continue serving six customers that use high-capacity services to move data earlier this week.
The FCC has the regulatory power to stop telecom firms from turning off network services.
“Disconnection of E.spire’s services to either Sector or S&P would have a devastating effect on either entity’s ability to provide services to its members and could have a significantly negative effect on the financial services industry,” the FCC said in an order released Monday.
As a result, E.spire must continue to provide service to Sector Inc., a unit owned by the New York and American Stock Exchanges that buys telecom services for the markets and their member firms and Standard & Poor’s ComStock, which offers quotation data used by online information companies like Yahoo Inc. E.spire must also continue to provide four other customers service.
