Author Topic: Excite@Home Users (Read 574 times)

Kieran · « **on:** November 29, 2001, 06:44:00 AM »

Forgive me, I know this doesn't belong in general, but...

Excite users should know that starting tomorrow they may be blacked out. Excite is bankrupt, and the plug may be pulled. Better tell your squaddies now, or make alternate plans if you were going to attend any Internet events for the next few(?) days...

This is also to let the rest of you know where some of your compadres are if you should not be able to contact them or if they aren't around.

Chaos68 · « **Reply #1 on:** November 29, 2001, 08:55:00 AM »

yep i heard this also...I heard that Comcast is thinking about buying excite (possibly).
Not sure on that but thats the rumors.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #2 on:** November 29, 2001, 09:15:00 AM »

No Comcast is not going to buy @home. There is no current relief for @home. The court rejected AT&T's bid and there are no others in the queue.
With the cable companies suddenly faced with the prospect of becoming ISP's overnight, it is going to be interesting to see what happens.

skernsk · « **Reply #3 on:** November 29, 2001, 09:18:00 AM »

I'm an @home user and my cable company contacted me more than a month ago. The e-mail changed from skernsk@home.com to skernsk@SHAW.ca so I assume they are going to handle it.

I guess I'll find out soon enough...

mrfish · « **Reply #4 on:** November 29, 2001, 10:03:00 AM »

yikes i remember training in san bruno with some people from excite at an internet accounting seminar back in the late 90s when no one knew what they were doing.

all us internet startups were like "man we are running out of wheel barrows and closet space what do we do with this cash?"

or

"how do we revive an investor who dies smiling when we tell them how much we made?"

thats was just before they got stinking rich and now they are already busted. amazing...

those people's biggest problem back then was boxster or carrera and they were damn smug about it too....

i never dealt with their @home people too much but their ad sales department all became millionaires

- sheesh remember when advertisers would pay stupid big money just for impressions never mind the cpc!?

"why mr bergman your ad got 120,000 impressions! all those eyeballs" (of course you only sold $2.27 worth of product and your door to door flyers brought in about $,80,000.00 but never mind that now)

"well ...ok...i guess i can give you another 1/2 million..."

"that's a good boy - your people, my people, lunch, ciao"

lol man those days are gone....

the company i used to work for had their stock at $120 per share a few yrs ago. I sold mine when it dipped around $35(wish i coulda sold it sooner but wasnt vested) and today it is at $3.77 and dropping!!!!

my wife's company actually breached the $0.50 mark and might be delisted after selling for over 100 times that a few years ago

oh the humanity <brando on> "the horrah"

Nifty · « **Reply #5 on:** November 29, 2001, 10:09:00 AM »

The cable companies that are using excite's assets are scrambling to incorporate their own. Cox (who is what I use) had plans to be fully on their own network by Summer 2002. Their word to the media was "we've upped the time table on that." I'm not sure what will happen in my neck of the woods. It really depends on the backbone here. All the local network for Cox here is their own, AFAIK.

I may or may not be online this Friday night as a result.

Kieran · « **Reply #6 on:** November 29, 2001, 10:15:00 AM »

Yup, I figure it's "Lights Out" for me come tomorrow. Insight Communication opened the e-mail with "@Home may be blacked out Friday" then proceeded to "but we don't think so". Writing's on the wall if ya ask me.

Damn shame, the connects have been outstanding here, too.

Skuzzy · « **Reply #7 on:** November 29, 2001, 10:36:00 AM »

Kieran, the handwriting has been on the wall since the first day @home opened for business.
I have been saying all along it was only a matter of time before they went under. The price point for the service is too low to sustain any growth and provide decent connectivity.
You have to figure the cable companies will increase the rates to somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 to $60/month. This is what I calculate to be a near break even point in order to sustain any quality of connection and maintain any reasonable growth.

I am very curious how the cable companies are going to handle becoming an ISP.

Nifty · « **Reply #8 on:** November 29, 2001, 10:54:00 AM »

at least you've received an email. Nothing here yet. Guess I'll call and see what they say. Specifically "IF we lose service for more than a few days, will you be charging me for the downtime???"

Got off the phone with them. Any downtime will be credited on the next bill (including modem rental). They've set up a website and phone number for information.

Cox@home subscribers info (or if you're just curious)

[ 11-29-2001: Message edited by: Nifty ]

Kieran · « **Reply #9 on:** November 29, 2001, 10:59:00 AM »

Just had that conversation with my brother. The answer is "yes" if my experience with business recently means anything. They can hardly afford to not charge their customers, and the customers have the right to stop being customers, so...

bowser · « **Reply #10 on:** November 29, 2001, 07:11:00 PM »

Skuzzy,

Can you explain what you mean by the local cable companies "becoming ISP's"? Will things change with regards to their network, etc.?...or do you just mean from a business perspective? I know locally, they are moving people onto different email servers, but that's all I've been able to find out so far.

bowser

Skuzzy · « **Reply #11 on:** November 29, 2001, 07:29:00 PM »

Basically bowser, the cable compaines are having to take over the Internet service side of things from @home.
Due to the debt @home has, its assets are frozen so the cable companies are having to buy and install equipment for the Internet operations or arrange to have other ISP's act as the service provider. The latter is not happening anywhere I know of as none of the existing ISP's want to have much to do with the cable modem business.

It will be pretty interesting to see cable companies running the Internet side of things.

Kieran · « **Reply #12 on:** November 29, 2001, 07:31:00 PM »

Think of the local providers as franchise owners. The parent company has gone under; the parent company is where the service was derived. The local companies have to scramble to get Internet to resell to their established base. This means they will have to strike a deal with another broadband provider, and quick. AOL, Road Runner, Sprint, ATT, and a few others might be able to do it, but it is a matter of how fast that can happen. Even if it happens tomorrow it is almost certain prices will go up.

Kieran · « **Reply #13 on:** November 29, 2001, 07:32:00 PM »

Yikes, hit my answer two minutes after you, Skuzzy!

SKurj · « **Reply #14 on:** November 30, 2001, 06:43:00 PM »

Heyas Skernsk I believe we canucks be ok for the most part.
Rogers took over the @home network here in toronto, my emails etc changed to @Rogers.com

SKurj