Australia's largest Internet Service Provider Telstra denies that Big Pond users have been pounded by a lethal virus.
Big Pond users with email accounts beginning with I, L or M have not been lost to a suspecting virus, the telco heavyweight said - despite reports suggesting otherwise.
"It's not a virus," Telstra spokesman Stuart Gray told ZDNet. "It's a software fault."
The telecommunications giant, with 680,000 Big Pond subscribers, apparently suffered two email outages - one on Friday February 23 and the other on Monday, February 26.
"The outages were caused by a software fault and both lasted for about four hours," Gray said.
The blackout would have let to delays in some users accessing email but no email messages have been lost to the glitch, Gray confirmed.
Because Big Pond users are allocated to a mail store (server) on an alphabetical basis the fault affected those users with email accounts beginning with I, L or M - about 10 percent of the Big Pond customer base, according to Gray.
Telstra pays out up to AU$40 a day in customer service guarantees if there are delays in fixing a fault, however the system has been working normally since Monday, according to Gray.
