4million in the US face broadband blackout

[michaelw]

Just a heads up.. hits will be a bit lower because of this

More than four million broadband cable users in the US face being cut off unless a dispute between Excite@Home and cable companies is resolved. A US judge is due to rule on the matter later today after creditors of Excite@Home - which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September - called for the service to be shut down. If the judge sides with the creditors, customers could be left without Net access from this evening.
Pulling the plug at such short notice is thought unlikely. In a letter to customers Kim D Kelly, executive VP of New York-based cableco Insight Communications, said that he didn't think the "system will go dark" tonight. He assured customers that he and others were working "on a number of fronts to prevent this from happening".
However, as a precaution cable broadband users are being advised to make other arrangements for Net access and make back-ups of Web pages.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/22/23117.html

[TwinTone]

Like that I have DSL.. =)

[Shannon]

Thanks for the post and link - That really sucks, as I use cox for my main isp. I knew they were in trouble, but did'nt think it was down to the wire.

I'm still online via Cox, so far so good...hehe

[WiredGuy]

Most of the companies that use the AtHome network have setup contingency plans to anticipate this in the past week. Of course, they don't disclose what they are so let's hope their backup plans don't fail them.

WG

[Fossil]

from what i heard, exite@home won the case, and is planning to turn off the "lights" at 12am PST, i hope thats not true, cause it will be very hard to manage my sites when i all of a sudden have no internet connection, not to mention losing my main personal email address

this really fucking sucks

i certainly hope they have a good backup plan that doesnt involve something in the line of "free netzero accounts"

anybody have an update on the situation?

[Shannon]

If they won the case does'nt that mean we will continue to have them as an isp until at&t takes over the first part of the new year?

[Shannon]

I stand corrected - I had it all twisted in my head..hehe

[toker]

Well some guys been saying this would happen about 2 years ago.

Im sure no one will want to bail them out its just way below the red and no one wants to invest in failure. You can bet DSL will go up after they do shut down to recoup lost money for many investors.

[WiredGuy]

Well, it's now 3am here so it should be around 12pm PST, are At Home services still connected? Are the carriers backup plans in effect now?

WG

[manga]

Looks ok here. I'm surfing on @home now so I guess the local cable company's contingency plan is working. Don't know about anywhere else.

[Shannon]

Anyone know of someone that uses Cox Comm. that has lost their connection yet?

It's 1:10am and I am still going strong... Did by chance anywhere here if Cox pulled a rabbit out of the hat on this one? I called the information line, but it has'nt been updated since 5:45pm this afternoon.

[Inde]

It's 10am here and I am still able to use @home. I think they might have worked out a last minute deal with the cable providers.

[Fossil]

so far i think there hasnt been an agreement, so they are in the process of shutting stuff down, but im not exactly sure

its possible they are trying to fuck with the cable companies seeing how they are the ones trying to put them out of business, cause if they take it apart one by one, then the customers call up and bitch causing probs with the cable companies support center :)

so i dont know how long this will last, i know im not pay 40 dollars per month to use some free service, b/c at the moment, my isp, comcast has no network setup so they wont be able to provide cable access, i think Cox Cable does tho, they just have to finish it

looks like im screwed cause DSL isnt offered in my area

guess ill be looking into satellite

[mukoh]

I wonder what this will do to the traffic when 4 million people lose their connection at the same time.

[sonicpuke]

Well not everyone still has service. My cable is shut off and when I called they said it will take up to 3 days for me to get access to thier "new" network ;(

Thank god I still have my dialup but it SUCKS compared to the cable I'm used to.

850,000 at&t customers are already without access though the news media isn't mentioning this much. Trust me it's true cause I'm one of them ;(

sonic

[gse]

well, look at from bright point:
when xpics went down, how many of you lost cash and how many mad a ton?

If all this people lose access now, they probably lose their free websites as well :) more business for access providers and nonadult hosting. Isnt't is good? lol

[Mogul]

Cox (at least in Vegas) is not soley reliant on @home so if @home shuts their pipe off, no disruption will occur.

Also Cox has been laying their own wiring down and expects to go 100% self reliant in 2002.

[Shannon]

I am still going strong on a Cox connection in Phoenix...

[MayorX]

Wll mt @home is out!

back on the Dial up :-(

[Fossil]

yea, cox has their own network setup, and it will be operational soon

but comcast i dont think does

but for me, i still have a connection, and @home is still working, its just a little gay in terms of speed

[sonicpuke]

Yes cable is back for me ;)

Whew. I thought it might go on longer. Only one day of outage not too bad I guess ;)

(So far anyways)