Truckstop.net has halted operations, filed suit against Sprint Communications: A press release arrived out of the blue from highway-side Wi-Fi operator Truckstop.net that they had suspended operations due to equipment problems that the company alleges are the responsibility of Sprint Communications. Further, Truckstop.net has filed a suit against Sprint seeking $75,000,000.
Update: TruckingInfo.com reports on Dec. 2 on which of Truckstop.net's locations are still operational.
Full press release follows:
San Antonio, Texas - Operations at Truckstop.net, LLC have been suspended pending litigation.
Scott Moscrip, CEO of Truckstop.net today announced that most current operations have been suspended pending litigation in the U.S. District Court in Idaho.
From August 2003 to June 2004 Sprint Communications engineered and deployed more than 500 Wi-Fi hot spots at Truck Stops and Travel Plazas throughout the United States for Truckstop.net. Thousands of customers signed up and used Truckstop.net from the time the service became available and many reported problems connecting to Truckstop.net hotspots at hundreds of locations while having no problems at other hotspots. Truckstop.net has been working with Sprint over the last 5 months trying to determine the source of the problems. It was determined that the problems were caused by the equipment that Sprint configured and installed and, as such, the Wi-Fi solution currently deployed at each Truckstop.net location would need to be replaced or reconfigured. Sprint has not corrected these problems. As a result, Truckstop.net declared Sprint in breach of contract and on November 15th started litigation in U.S. District Court. Subsequently, Sprint terminated the Internet circuits to the locations effectively halting the service.
"We regret the inconvenience this causes to our customers and problems for our partner locations. At some locations the stops themselves have hooked in an internet circuit that is keeping the service active at their location. We are offering the service at no charge currently at those locations while we explore alternatives for fixing the problems in the equipment." said Allan Meiusi, COO of Truckstop.net. “Many of our customers have been very understanding throughout this last week offering pictures of sites with installation issues and reporting outages at sites, and we thank them for being our eyes in the field.”
Information about the current status of the litigation can be found at: http://www.id.uscourts.gov/wconnect/wc.dll?usdc_racer~get_case_jb~1:4+-CV-561~ON~ALL+DOCUMENTS~PUID=RESTRICTED
About Truckstop.net
Truckstop.net is a Service Provider specializing in wireless Internet connectivity and networking solutions allowing subscribers to increase their access and availability to the Internet using wireless fidelity technologies (Wi-Fi). www.truckstop.net
RemotePipes, Inc. is a Truckstop.net reseller - they are one network provider in our globally aggregated IP network. We feel bad for the entrepreneurs at Truckstop.net and we sincerely hope the issue gets resolved soon since we have also been affected by this matter. Fortunately we have other Wi-Fi relationships with companies like Airpath and Fatport, as well as 25,000 dialup locations in 150 countries worldwide, so our customers have plenty of ways to connect. We certainly welcome current Truckstop.net customers to our worldwide mobile internet access network so they can continue to receive service. Doug Bonestroo, CEO.
Regarding the truckstop.net(TSN) service:
TSN had service at Pilot,Loves,Petro,Rip griffin, and many other truckstops. I had connected to several locations at the truckstops and had no problem connecting to the service. the Problem or issues most drivers I spoke to had was that at trucks stops there are large parking areas. The antenna systems at Pilot, and loves truckstops,placed on the main building, were inadequate to reach the trucks which were unable to park with in 100 feet of the building.
Note: these truck stops fill up extremely fast and if you are not there early you will not be able to connect due to area restrictions.
Also at all locations the issue of the antennas not being high enough were as a truck and trailer passing between me and the antenna would cut the service. hence I would have to reconnect and try to finish what I was doing before the next truck would go by.
After review of the information I have recieved from each party it seems as if truckstop.net is blaming the issues on Sprint, whereas TSN should have done more research on the issues I have brought up herein.
As a truck driver which uses the internet very often to get loads and weather information, I must say that having used several different Wi-Fi hot spots, TruckStop.net was the worse organized period. I use idleaire, Travelcenters of America, and Flying J. these provide a much better connection and do adjust when needed to accomodate the customer.
Thank you
Christopher J. Perret
Truck driver