Is @home service going bye-bye?

vetteguy

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2001
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I just saw a thread talking about how AT&T's @home service might be shutting down at the end of the month. Huh?! I've been an @home subscriber for a year and a half now, and this is the first I've heard of it! I would think that if they were going to pull the plug on my service they would have contacted me. I looked on their site and it talks about excite@home. Was this a service that was purchased by AT&T? I was never an Excite subscriber, so am I safe? I don't want to lose my broadband, I have too much invested in network equipment!
 

Garion

Platinum Member
Apr 23, 2001
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Excite@home is your ISP. AT&T simply provides the connectivity. It's much like having a phone line through Qwest (or Verizon or..) and Earthlink as your ISP.

You should have received a letter via snail mail last week and an email this past weekend explaining what AT&T is doing - Good read.

If Excite@home goes down, so will your service. It would appear, however, that AT&T is taking steps to make sure you don't go down for too long. They actually have a bid in to purchase the rest of Excite@home (they already own a large chunk of it). If that doesn't work, they will likely switch you to an AT&T network instead of an @home network.

In short, I doubt if your cable modem is going to go away. You might have an interruption in service and some big changes during the switch, but that's probably about it.

- G
 

vetteguy

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2001
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Whoa! This is unreal!!! I can't believe that my service provider would be this far from shutting down without even hinting at it to me! Would the phone company not tell you if they were going to discontinue your service in a week?! Rest assured that AT&T is getting a call from me tonight!
 

Garion

Platinum Member
Apr 23, 2001
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Slooooow down there. They aren't going to cut off your service. AT&T is buying @home. This means that things will continue to run, pretty much as they always have. I doubt if you'll see any changes. I don't know about you, but I think that AT&T has done a pretty good job of notifying me of the possible changes, via e-mail and snail mail.

On that note, I do seem to recall that there was contention from Excite@Home stockholders who thought that AT&T was going to pay too little for the company, but I think that has died down and that the deal will go through.

As to the end of the month.. Not sure where you heard that, but I highly doubt if it's true.

- G
 

vetteguy

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2001
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Well I guess it shouldn't surprise me...AT&T has been about as far from a reliable provider as one could expect. Constant outages, zero help from their support centers, calls returned in WEEKS instead of hours. I'm not saying that has anything to do with this particular issue, but it's seemed from the beginning like their cable internet service has been an afterthought.
 

Garion

Platinum Member
Apr 23, 2001
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.. And now to eat my words..

Excte@home could shut down service on Friday

Somehow, I don't think that AT&T has had a chance to build their new network yet. At least they have the resources to do it more quickly than a lot of the other cable companies! For once, I'm actually happy that AT&T bought TCI.

- G
 

owensdj

Golden Member
Jul 14, 2000
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Garion, from what I've read, the @Home bondholders still don't want AT&T to buy @Home broadband equipment to keep the service going. They feel AT&T drove @Home into bankrupcy so AT&T could buy the broadband equipment at a very low price. The bondholders want a judge to let @Home pull the plug on its Internet service December 1st to stop the daily loss of money. If the judge lets the @Home bondholders block AT&T purchase and lets @Home pull the plug, @Home customers WILL suddenly lose Internet service. Nobody really knows for sure what the judge will do on the 30th.
 

Salvador

Diamond Member
May 19, 2001
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I'm a ATT@Home customer in the Chicago area and I got a strange email from Rogers Cable saying that my email will change and my access will change November 30th. First of all, I thought Rogers was in Canada and from the message, it appears that they are talking about the US like I'm not in it, so I would assume that it's Canada.

Anyway.. What's weird is that I only got this email message on one of my user id's. What's also strange is that I get random messages from time to time that aren't addressed to me. Could someone with @home service in Canada have the same user id that I have and some mail makes it through to me from time to time?

Anyway.. Here's the message:

Edit: I just noticed that this message was emailed to someone with an @home address only the username had a space between the username and the @ symbol. Instead of being something like salvador@home.com (not my @home email btw), it was salvador @home. Strange. Maybe I'll write this person and see if the message goes through. If this is the case, it would explain why I get occasional mail that is supposed to go to the other person. All someone has to do is leave out the space between the username and the @ symbol and the mail would come to me instead.

=============================

Dear Rogers @Home Customer:

The switch to "@rogers.com" is underway! Until November 30th,
we're making daily draws for a total of $175,000 worth of Shopping
Sprees at Future Shop and RadioShack to reward customers for changing
their Email and WebSpace addresses.

We strongly encourage you to make the switch before November 30th, 2001
at 10:00 p.m. EST. This is critical as we can't be certain of how long
you will have access to your @home.com Email address beyond this date,
given the financial instability of Excite @ Home in the United States.
Rogers is attempting to have the November 30 date extended. However,
given the uncertainty of the situation, it is important for you to make
these changes.

It's simple to make the transition. Just go to www.rogershelp.com for
step-by-step transition instructions, updates, and contest rules and
regulations. The sooner you make the switch, the more prizes you are
eligible to win.

Here is the information you will need to log in to the Transition Website
and access your @rogers.com Email:

Your User Name is to log onto the Transition Website is:
xxxxxxxxxx

Your new @rogers.com Email address is:
xxxxxxxxx @rogers.com
(Please ignore any capital letters or spaces that occur in this Email address)

Your temporary password is (this password will allow to as access your
@rogers.com Email):
xxxxxxxxxxxxx


These changes will result in a better service, including Web-based Email,
which gives you Email access from anywhere in the world. Make sure you
tell friends, family and other contacts about your new Email address.

It is vital that you move to your new "@rogers.com" address by 10 p.m. on
November 30th, 2001.

Once again, we thank you for your cooperation and assistance during this
transition. It's all part of providing you with a better high-speed Internet
service.

Yours truly,


Alek Krstajic
Senior Vice-President
Rogers Cable

=======================

I don't know what to make of this and I guess I'll just sit tight until I find out more info.

Sal

 

Mrburns2007

Platinum Member
Jun 14, 2001
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Heard Comcast is building there own network and giving up on @home altogether. The whole situtuation makes DSL not look so bad ....
 

ToXiCRaGE

Senior member
Aug 26, 2000
508
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from my understanding excite is going down. Im with an internet provider called SHAW. Anyhow, excite has been maintaining SHAW's emails so when the message came to change the ending from @home.com to @shaw.ca it was kindda crappy. If ur interntet provider is excite (i dont know if they are providers) then ya, you have some worrying to do, but if you are with someone else and Excite was just doing business with your internet provider then no worries.... and if everything goes to hell just go with a different provider :D
 

vetteguy

Diamond Member
Sep 12, 2001
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I love how it's "if we can't buy Excite, your service may be interrupted, but it may not", and then "even if we can buy it your service may be interrupted, but it may not". Hmm...so basically I have to wait until Friday and see if my cable modem still has little blinking activity lights? Wonderful...fortunately, I can get DSL in my area, of course that provider is just as crappy as AT&T (maybe even more so).