Excite@Home cable modem service could end on Friday! (1 Viewer)

[Deane Johnson]

Thanks Dennis. That's an interesting article.

I'm hoping this is nothing more than a game of corporate "chicken" and that we'll see service continue until this is worked out. I'm spoiled with the high speed service.

Deane

 

[Carl Johnson]

Well its about 84 minutes till midnight where i'm from. If @home goes out then I'll probably be without net access for at least a month. I'm moving pretty soon and it would hardly be worth the hassle of switching back to dialup. Perhaps I should be looking into getting a sattelite connection for my new place........

 

[LarryH]

I think the appeal to customers of switching to satellite service is a big reason why these turkeys should stop squabbling about a few bucks and think about the business as a whole.

 

[Brian Lawrence]

FUCK!!! I had no idea about any of this. I am on a cox@home connection and recently just paid several hundred dollars for a cable modem.

 

[Robert McDonald]

My wife couldn't get on earlier; so I thought they pulled the plug, but 12:11 a.m. EST still ok with Comcast@home; could it be comcast was able to work something out with the creditors to let it continuing the portal? I guess we'll see tomorrow

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Well, the email servers bogged down a bit Friday afternoon, but so far we are after midnight in Texas and AT&T @Home is still online.

Of course, tomorrow morning the plug could be pulled.

Ah well, I need to get out more. Some downtime on the Internet might be a good thing...

- Steve

 

[Bill Catherall]

Well...going to bed now. I hope I wake up to a cable modem that still has a pulse. If I don't check in by 8am PST then my end is dead.

This reminds me of that Simpsons episode when Homer is expected to die. He spends his last night on earth listening to the Bible on tape, but falls asleep before morning. Marge and the kids find him slumped over in his chair downstairs...but the drool was still warm! He's alive!! Will my modem still be warm in the morning? One can only hope.

 

[Steve_Ch]

The judge has indeed given the green light to "pull" the plug, but there is really only so much a judge can do to keep a service running.

I remember when Northpoint went out of business, there was a court order for them to continue operation for 60 days so their customers can move to another service. The order basically did NOTHING, as Northpoint at that time had no money to pay either employees or vendors or lease for their facility, not to mention a bunch of creditors breathing down their neck. The legal system can say what they want, but if things are bad enough, it really makes no difference. Ask yourself, if a company has already gone under and has no hope of ever paying you, will you stick around and work for nothing for another 2 months? By at least one account, @Home is now bleeding $6 million a week and if that's the case, the well will be dry in no time and whatever the court says will mean nothing.

 

[Jon_B]

Well, If it goes down tonight....it was nice chatting with you all. Later :frowning:
Jon

 

[Gui A]

If they pull the plug, it'll be around 12AM PST, or 3AM EST... so there's just over an hour left.

.. and i think the news servers are already down... i can ping them, but i'm not able to download any messages.

 

[NickT]

The time that excite can cut off service is midnight Pacific time or 3am Eastern.

I too will be screwed if the service goes down. I don't have a dial up modem in my computer either but that doesn't really matter since the phone lines where I'm at got cut from the construction here. It'll be a few days before they can fix the phone lines, so no net for me if cable goes down.

I get my cable from Cox and they say it won't be until next year before their network is ready, so I hope they can work out a deal to keep service running.

 

[ScottFauque]

2:35am here in Central and I'm still alive. :b

 

[Ryan Witt]

I thought the allowable shut-off time begins at 3 AM Central time.

T-minus 10 minutes.

 

[ScottFauque]

Oh heck don't you think we are all just too addicted to this internet stuff and it would be good if they unplugged us for a while...ya know back to the basics, time with the family, ... non-stop DVD watching...oh wait my new Kenwood Entre would stop working...bad idea after all.

 

[Ryan Witt]

NO!!!! Don't say such terrible things!!

 

[SteveA]

Well, it's 8:00AM EST and my Comcast connection is still up. I just checked their information website and the same information from yesterday afternoon is still posted:

"As of this afternoon, a Bankruptcy Court Judge ruled that Excite@Home has the right to end its contracts with its cable partners. This does not necessarily mean that Excite@Home will turn off the service and, at this time, we are not aware of any planned interruptions. In fact, we are continuing discussions with Excite and the other cable affiliates and creditors to do everything possible to avoid an outage."

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Well my connection is up, but my email is gone...

- Steve

 

[Dennis Reno]

Well, still up (no Mr. Dole, we aren't discussing Viagra...)

Quick question - how can a service with over 4 million subscribers lose $6 million a week?!?! @Home is a premium service with the average customer paying their local cable company $40-$50 a month. If @Home only receives $10 a month for each subscriber that is $40 million a month or just under a half BILLION dollars a year in revenue! Any explanations???

 

[tyler O]

Thank you AT&T. I'm still kicking here...

 

[Jim__B]

Still on here in Tallahassee, FL. I was so nervous pushing the on button on the modem, but when all 3 light lit I was pleasantly surprised. I think my email is woking to but I can not confirm.