Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based internet service provider Quest Net Corp has filed suit against PSINet, alleging fraud, misrepresentation and breach of contract. Quest Net accuses PSINet of overselling its bandwidth to smaller, downstream ISPs, and of making inflated claims about how much bandwidth it can actually deliver. The company says its months of negotiations in good faith with PSINet have produced only partial settlement on one of the minor issues at stake. In order to protect the rights of its shareholders and of other secondary ISPs, Quest Net said it was forced to resort to the courts. It’s time that internet companies like PSINet are held accountable for their exaggerated bandwidth capacity claims, blatant overselling and unfair business practices, said Quest Net CEO Camilo Pereira in a statement, I think it’s time one of the little companies took a stand. Pereira said he believes other internet companies indulge the same practices, and that first tier internet providers accept this kind of behavior as industry standard. The company hopes to recover nearly $40m worth of damages from PSINet.
