Saved: 90,000 CWC email users

The condemned Cable & Wireless Communications internet service has won a reprieve just days before users were due to have web and email addresses permanently deleted.

Mobile internet provider Boltblue will take over the cwcom.net, cwc.net and mcmail.com servers at midnight on 30 November - the day NTL, which now owns CWC, was planning to switch them off.

According to Michael Brown, CEO of Boltblue, it's a great deal for users. "We are delighted to be welcoming these customers into the Boltblue fold," he told silicon.com.

NTL planned to terminate CWC's consumer and small business internet services on 30 November - 16 months after its £8.2bn buyout of CWC's home division. But the cable firm came under fire when users were only told at the last minute that the service was being discontinued.

NTL faced further criticism after users were offered the NTLworld cable service as an alternative - although many were unable to receive it.

Customers will be automatically switched over to the new service, a transition which Boltblue hopes will go smoothly. Users will keep the same password and email address, and be charged at the same rate as their current contract.

"We'll take on existing contracts as they are and keep servicing users on the same basis," said Brown.

Despite the apparent ease with which NTL threw away 90,000 customers, Brown claimed the deal is a very different proposition for Boltblue. "These users are very profitable," he said, "Boltblue has a very different cost structure to NTL".

The company, which competes with Genie and Vizzavi, is keen to get web users combining internet access from a PC and mobile devices. "The markets are beginning to converge, but people still spend 60 to 70 per cent of browsing time on their PC," Brown admitted.

"Now we'll be able to offer Boltblue mobile internet services directly to these customers."

Boltblue and NTL refused to comment on the financial details of the deal.

Things haven't been going well for NTL recently. Big debts in the boardroom, poor morale on the shop floor