OPTUS is rushing to transfer some 50,000 free Australian webmail accounts from the US as debt-ridden company Excite threatens to switch off its network.
After buying out its joint cable internet venture with Excite@Home in September, Optus gained the rights to Excite's free webmail service.
However the transition of the Excite.com.au mail accounts from Excite's US servers to Optus' infrastructure has not been carried out, and Optus is concerned the accounts may be lost if they are not transferred within the next 24 hours.
Excite@Home's administrators said they would shut down the network as the leading bid for the company, from AT&T, was not enough to repay the debts.
A source close to Optus told Australian IT that technical staff were now racing to move the mail accounts onto Optus servers in case the administrators went ahead with their decision to shut down Excite on Saturday.
News source: Australian IT
After buying out its joint cable internet venture with Excite@Home in September, Optus gained the rights to Excite's free webmail service.
However the transition of the Excite.com.au mail accounts from Excite's US servers to Optus' infrastructure has not been carried out, and Optus is concerned the accounts may be lost if they are not transferred within the next 24 hours.
Excite@Home's administrators said they would shut down the network as the leading bid for the company, from AT&T, was not enough to repay the debts.
A source close to Optus told Australian IT that technical staff were now racing to move the mail accounts onto Optus servers in case the administrators went ahead with their decision to shut down Excite on Saturday.
News source: Australian IT
The source said that the last-minute rush was due to a combination of factors. Much of the relevant technicians had been occupied with the transfer of the Optus@Home cable network services to Optus.
It was also a complex procedure which involved getting access to Excite's mail servers in the US.
"It's been a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing," the source said.
An Optus spokeswoman said the integration of Excite's Australian website into Optus' platform was "on track".
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