Document text
Charter switches some users to Pipeline Staff and wire reports Medford resident Les Ray, one of many Charter@Home high-speed Internet customers caught in limbo since a bankruptcy judge said ExciteAtHome Corp. could end service Friday, has taken all the prescribed precautions. "The fact I still have Internet service makes it easier to tolerate the uncertainty," Ray said Monday. "I've backed up my favorites and e-mails and I think there are still a few gigs left on the hard drive." CNET, an Internet technology news service, said Monday that Charter Communications, which continues to build a parallel network, is still in negotiations with Excite@Home for 14,000 customers in the Medford and Kennewick, Wash., regions. Those customers still have Excite@Home service, but Charter is switching them to Charter Pipeline, its independent network. Charter has switched 131,000 former Excite@Home customers elsewhere to Charter Pipeline. Ray, 49, says his family switched from Ashland Internet provider Jeffnet after seven years to connect with @Home four months ago and pays $35.95 monthly for delivery to two home personal computers. High-speed Internet access "is not necessary, but the audio and video streaming are much, much better," Ray says. "It's like watching television on the monitor." Ron Hren, Charter group vice president who oversees the company's Oregon operations, said Charter was still in negotiations with Excite and its creditors. "There's been no change and everything is still on; @Home is still operating," Hren said. Less than one week ago, Excite@Home, a Redwood City, Calif.-based company, had 4.1 million customers, controlling about 45 percent of U.S. households with broadband access. Now it has about half that as the cable companies transfer customers to independent networks. Two cable companies announced Monday that they had reached an agreement with Excite@Home, ensuring high-speed Internet access to 1.3 million customers. Philadelphia-based Comcast Cable Communications and Atlanta-based Cox Communications each agreed to pay $160 million to Excite@Home for three months of high-speed Internet service. Those agreements will replace the existing contracts, which had the cable partners paying Excite@Home monthly subscriber fees. The agreements mean that roughly 800,000 Comcast customers and 555,000 Cox customers will have high-speed Internet access through Excite@Home's network until they are switched to Comcast and Cox's own networks. By Monday, AT&T said it had moved about 330,000 of its subscribers, mainly in Oregon, Washington and the Dallas area, to its own network and restored their Internet access. Next in line were more than 300,000 customers in Illinois and the San Francisco Bay area. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.