Biscit denies cash flow problems

The chief executive of internet provider Biscit has denied reports that his company is running low on cash.

Responding to a piece on website ISP Review, entitled Biscit facing financial difficulty? — Cheques bounce, Hugh Paterson said the story was "overblown" and "no mystery".

The story referred to two Biscit customers who had been overcharged by the ISP. Following legal action in at least one of the cases, Biscit issued refund cheques to the customers. The cheques then bounced, prompting customers to speculate on ISP Review's forums that Biscit was "broke".

However, Paterson told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the problem had accidentally arisen when Biscit closed one of its bank accounts. "Unfortunately, five cheques were issued by accounts as refunds on the day before the account was closed," he said, adding that replacement cheques were being issued from an active account.

Biscit, which took over the ISP V21 last year, entered into a public row with wholesale provider NetServices after NetServices cut off V21 over "burst bandwidth" charges and rerouted its customers onto another NetServices-supplied ISP, ezeeDSL. At the time, Paterson claimed NetServices had done this as a customer-retention ploy. Many affected customers have since been returned to Biscit/V21.