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

[Steve Tannehill]

At 8:25am, Domain Name Servers stopped responding. I'm in the Dallas area.

Email is down.

Green lights are on the modem, but no service is coming through.

Fuckers.

I switched the Airport base station over to dial-up. At least that works.

- Steve

 

[David Benkert]

Here in Chicagoland I cannot use my cable connection. All 3 lights are blinking, but won't become solid. They were solid this morning, but I couldn't get to anything.
I'm in the suburbs of Chicago.
:frowning:

 

[Dennis Reno]

Same here. All the lights are blinking on the modem but no service. I had to come into the office for a minute so I thought I would vent.

To make matters worse DSL is not available in my neighborhood. I guess I better dig out one of my old modems and start the installation process...

 

[Chris Fondoklis]

Comcast has updated an updated message on their website:

At this time, around-the-clock negotiations continue with Excite@Home and its creditors to prevent any interruption of service. Currently, we are not aware of any planned service interruptions and will update this hotline if the situation changes. We apologize for any inconvenience this situation has caused and thank you for your loyalty to Comcast.

So far so good !!

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Well, it's official. I just got an automated call from AT&T @Home telling me that service was down and that they would be calling me back within a week with migration instructions to a new service. They are offering two days of credit for every day of interrupted service.

Back to dial-up...

- Steve

 

[Jon_B]

AT&T is down here. I have a hard time believing they are going to call every customer to give them an update. Right now I'm using a dial up modem. :frowning: A week is a long time for a internet service to be down. Could they be stalling in an attempt to keep as many customers as they can until they figure a way out of this mess?
Jon

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I have a hard time believing they are going to call every customer to give them an update.

It's amazing what computers, recorded messages, and auto-dialers can do...

- Steve

 

[Steve Tannehill]

From Link Removed
(Yes, an ironic link if there ever was one.)
AT&T says AtHome Internet service unplugged
Updated:*Sat,*Dec*01*2:47*PM*EST
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - AT&T Corp. said on Saturday that troubled ExciteAtHome Corp. had shut down high-speed cable Internet access used by 850,000 AT&T customers, who would be moved to a new AT&T provider.
A federal judge on Friday ruled that bankrupt ExciteAtHome, in order to reach better terms for its service, could unplug customers, threatening to strand some 4.1 million Internet users served by AT&T and other cable companies.
"AT&T continued negotiations with At Home Corporation late into Friday evening and early Saturday morning only to see the Excite+Home service cut off," AT&T Broadband said in a statement.
AT&T said it had already migrated some 86,000 customers in Oregon and Washington to an AT&T Broadband service and would move remaining customers within 10 days.

 

[Steve_Ch]

>>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???

 

[Steve_Ch]

Should be $10 instead of $8 (should have preview first) to break even, $16 instead of $14 for $6M loss per week.

 

[Dennis Reno]

Seems to be working all of a sudden! I checked my email for an announcement from Comcast but there was nothing. However, if I want to increase my bust/penis size, reduce my debt, make thousands of dollars a week from home, get a university degree or see some hot cheerleaders I am all set.

 

[RogerB]

 

[Jon_B]

Well I'll be. For some reason I forgot what era we are in and was thinking a person would be contacting everyone. :b

That was until I received a call from a computer a couple hours ago. It just stated info that has already been listed on here.

Jon

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

I have cox@home, and for now it's still working.

I can't believe that all of these cable companies depended so much on just one company to get onto the Internet.

 

[Bill Catherall]

[big sigh] [sobbing] [now crying big tears] :frowning: My modem is dead!!! I tried getting online this morning at about 7am PST and found no pulse. Dead as a door nail. Tried calling AT&T to see if they had at least an automated answering system to tell me what's going to happen next. The only thing they could tell me was to check their website. What?!?! I can't get online...how can I check a website? No wonder their not making a smooth transition here. There's a bunch of incompitent morons running things there. Then when I tried to talk to someone the computer just gave me a busy signal. Gee...I wonder why. I did get the automated call later in the day.
I take back what I said before about not being worried. I wonder how long I'm going to be using this crappy dial-up access.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

So basically, the news stories are saying that AT&T subscribers are the only ones so far who have lost service. Negotiations are still in progress with other vendors like Cox and Comcast.

Leave it to AT&T to screw things up...they make a low-ball offer to buy Excite, who then tells them to hit the road.

- Steve

 

[Jeff R.]

I got the call from AT&T this morning saying that it would be down for a couple days but I was back up on their new network earlier tonight. I already don't like it though. There is now a 1.5 Mbit cap and no more static IP. I would probably switch to DSL if it was available in my area. I can probably live with it for a while.

 

[RogerB]

Here's what Insight Cable had to say:

"We are working hard to avoid any inconvenience to our customers. In mid-October, we, together with other @Home affiliates (including Cox, Comcast, and Mediacom), increased our payments by over 50% to ensure uninterrupted service until an agreement among the Creditors could be reached; this was done at no additional cost to our customers. @Home affiliates including Insight are supporting AT&T in its bid to buy the @Home network. If the network were to go dark, there would be no cash coming in nor would there be any bids for @Home’s assets. Therefore, it makes no sense for @Home to “pull the plug.”

If the unlikely occurs, we will cover your cost of a dial-up service until we can transition you back to our broadband service. As I mentioned in our earlier note, we are talking with AOL Broadband and Road Runner, and believe we can expedite a transition."

We're still up - internet and e-mail.

 

[Patrick R. Sklenar]

Check out this sunday's (12/2) cartoon from User Friendly:
http://www.userfriendly.org/static/
Yes, at this point it's only AT&T users who've been cut off. Of course, AT&T was the closest to being ready with thier own network, so ... it's probably a good thing from the point of view of AT&T (mis-)management.
As for the rest of us (Comcast, COX, Insight, Eastern, etc etc etc) it's only a matter of time. I think the bondholders didn't really expect any of the MSO's to walk away like AT&T did. The possible income source of their service just dropped by 20% (800,000 users out of 4,000,000). And the other MSO's have all been working towards being able to do the same thing. To be honest, if COX caves into EXCITE demands, I'll probably leave them for DSL (if it can reach my new house). If COX makes the break, I'll probably stay with them.
Either way, it's "interesting times" we live in, eh?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

I'm not sure who my anger should be directed towards.

On one hand, you have Excite saying that they need more money to operate, and if they don't get it they will pull the plug--legally, since the contracts have expired.

On the other hand, you have AT&T who uses Excite to provide service, who has kept to the terms of their contract, and even made an (admittedly low) offer to buy out Excite.

Excite was playing the "there's no way you will want to disconnect 850,000 users" card. As one of the articles said, this was a game of chicken. Excite loses, the customer loses, and after I switch to DSL, AT&T loses.

So, who's at fault here?

- Steve