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Excite@Home Resumes Serving New Customers

After delay, bankrupt ISP cuts deals with partners and buyer AT&T to get back to business.

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

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Broadband Internet service provider Excite@Home has reached agreements with some of its largest partner cable companies that will allow it to continue bringing on new customers.

Excite@Home had announced last week that it would continue serving current customers but could not set up service for new ones. The ISP late in September filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

AT&T Broadband announced Wednesday it has reached an agreement that will allow it to resume deploying Internet access to new customers through Excite@Home. It will resume setting up the new services on Thursday, according to an AT&T statement. The vast majority of AT&T Broadband's approximately 1.35 million customers get their service in part through Excite@Home, according to AT&T.

New Contracts Set

Deals made Tuesday with Cox Communications and Comcast, and Friday with Canadian cable provider Rogers Cable, will again allow users served by those cable providers to sign up for cable Internet access, Excite@Home spokesperson Stephanie Xavier says. Those cable providers are among many that rely on Excite@Home equipment and network management services to deliver Internet access.

"They've addressed some outstanding financial issues with us," Xavier said. She would not describe those financial issues in detail.

Shifting Responsibility

Excite@Home serves about 3.2 million broadband customers but has been hurt by lagging advertising revenue in its multimedia content business. When the ISP declared bankruptcy September 28, AT&T said it would acquire its broadband Internet access business and service assets for about $307 million.

Cox continued to sign up new Internet service customers while working out new arrangements with Excite@Home, but delayed service installation dates by a few weeks, said Laura Oberhelman, a Cox spokeperson. "Our existing customers weren't affected at all...it was a financial breakdown, not a technical concern," she said.

Cox and Excite@Home have a service partnership that the two companies are trying to unravel, she said. Cox hopes to cut free from Excite@Home by June 4, 2002, managing more of its network by itself or with other ISP partners by then, Oberhelman said.

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