Banned X

Band-X Ltd., a bandwidth exchange, has come up with a novel way to deal with customers who disappear without paying: It’s outing them on its Web site.

It’s essentially the same approach taken by store owners and restaurateurs who display bounced checks from their customers—only Band-X is using a Web page:http://www.band-x.com/blacklist.cfm

There it’s listing a motley crew of people and companies. According to Band-X, all of them have committed heinous “blacklist offences” while trading wholesale telecom capacity, such as going AWOL at a critical moment, bidding for something they can’t afford, or worst of all, failing to cough up Band-X’s commission.

Right now, the folk in the stocks include the officers of a company that filed for bankruptcy without paying Band-X; a couple of petty con men who tried to fiddle some bills; and one Osa Okhomina, who hasn’t paid a £240 test bill “despite numerous tiresome reminders.”

—Peter Heywood, international editor, Light Reading http://www.lightreading.com