Northpoint DSL Warns Customers of Shutdown

noweb4u writes "According to their website it looks like the failed merger with verizon was the straw that broke the camel's back. Hope they can get funding enough to allow their DSL customers to migrate to other providers." CNNfn also more details about the details of the case - for all those who are Northpoint customers - good luck.

Comments

Not a good sign

[sith]

This, plus all of covads troubles is very disconcerting... it would seem unthinkable that broadband could "go away"... I do not like the thought be being left with only cable.

Are these broadband companies managing money poorly, or is it just impossible for a "new" company to provide a telecom related service?

Are Customer Accounts Assets?

[Alien54]

Bankrupt digital subscriber line company NorthPoint Communications will sell substantially all of its assets to AT&T for $135 million in cash.

maybe I am dumb, but aren't the customer accounts counted as assets? so wouldn't the customers become AT&T customers?

But that is not what I get from their website.

Looks like they are mostly hardware, at least according to the AT&T press release.

Some business managers can be so dumb.

Funding...

[scoove]

Hope they can get funding enough to allow their DSL customers to migrate to other providers.

Why?

This is where /. loses me sometimes (usually during the midst of a 340 page JonKatz angst-filled essay on the evils of capitalism).

Can any slashdotter name where funding comes from? Yes, the same schucks that are getting pounded on Wall Street right now. Idiots like myself that bought Redhat (yea, stupid idea, I know).

Why would any halfway sane investor put money into something only to fund moving customers away?

And don't these customers share some accountability, chosing an undercapitalized, poorly managed provider?

*scoove*

Re:Funding...

[scoove]

If Acme Corp wants Northpoint's customers, then Acme Corp better give Northpoint enough money to stay afloat long enough to migrate the customers over.

Good point, except when you're dealing with LECs. In the Midwest, the LECs I've been dealing with have been salivating over the DSL market. While they feigned difficulties in provisioning the CLEC orders, amazingly "ran out of room" in empty 14 story centers (Qwest, formerly US West, moved a bunch of junk desks into them and assigned temporary employees there in one city so they could claim they had no more colo space to offer CLECs), etc. they had more than a hunch that if the CLECs didn't get sufficient marketshare and subscriber base, they'd go belly up. (Good guess)

And LECs don't have to pay for the purchase of the CLEC customers. They let them crawl back to the LEC, occasionally sending out reminders like the ones US West sent out when Cox started offering phone service. Three months after switching, I got a postcard that said:

"We know you want to come back because the service you're getting isn't up to US West quality. Making poor choices in your phone service can be costly to you. Right now, we'll waive the install fee if you return during this special period."

Anyway, it looks like DSL isn't profitable below $70 or more... *sigh*

*scoove*

Re:Funding...

[Stephen Samuel]

Hope they can get funding enough to allow their DSL customers to migrate to other providers.

Can any slashdotter name where funding comes from? . . . Why would any halfway sane investor put money into something only to fund moving customers away?

Northpoint is the subcontractor for many ISPs who when resell the DSL services to other customers. If these companies want time to find another service provider to service their customers, then they may be willing to pay NorthPoint to keep going for a couple of months so that the don't end up with some seriously pissed off customers.

I worked for an ISP once which resold DSL services... At $75/months for up to 4MB down and 1MB up unmetered, they made it real clear that this was only for personal NON commercial uses. Nontheless -- when our sub-contractor decided to bring the service down for half a day for 'routine maintenance' at 9:00am and without any warning (twice!), one of our support people got a call from a guy who was absolutely livid . He ranted on about how this outage was costing him $6,000 a day (an hour? it was a while ago!). Reminders that the line was supposed to be for non-comercial uses didn't help.

I doubt that this guy would be likely to wait a month for the switchover process from NorthPoint to AT&T to complete. If someone wanted to keep someone like him as a customer, they'd have to take the loss-leader to cover the running of his service while the switchover paperwork was done.
--

This reflects....

[tomcrooze]

This failed merger reflects the slowdown of the Net economy. This slowdown was forseen by the pundits several months ago, as the peak of the get-rich-quick IPOs became the slump of the IPO-and-die.

I believe that we are on the verge of an economic slowdown, and although politicians have talked about fixing it, it is very hard to prevent the US economy from doing what investors want.

Face it. Since much of the world's economy is dependent on the US's economy, a global economic slump is likely to fall into a depression. Of what degree remains to be seen. It happened in 1929; it can happen again.

Re:This reflects....

[cymen]

Is it surprising that we are *in* an ecconomic slowdown after what happened over the last couple years in the tech market?

Just because the tech market is getting hit doesn't mean we are in a depression. There was no way the over valued tech stocks could maintain the false expectations of investors. If the slump hadn't come now it would have been even dirtier in a year or two.

So hopefully the tech market will slump down to actual (instead of hyper-inflated) worth and we'll all continue happily on. Those that invested heavily in the tech market will feel the burn but the rest of the country (and the world) doesn't have to feel the burn too...

Re:This reflects....

[TWR]

It happened in 1929; it can happen again.

What happened in 1929 is unlikely to happen again. The worldwide economy broke down because of several factors, including stupid tarrifs in the US. Germany was forced to pay reparations to the allies after WWI which were crippling. To pay them off, they just printed more money (which of course triggers inflation). World trade was flowing pretty good during the 20s, so no one noticed the inflation at first. But when the protectionist Hawley-Smoot tarriff kicked in, world trade started to slow down, and bills started coming due.

There were other things, too. Overspeculation on the stock market caused markets to crash (which is what we are seeing right now, but not nearly to the same extent). There was no FDIC insurance on bank accounts, so if the bank went under, you lost all your money. This led to lack of faith in banks, which is a bad thing, because it is banks lending money (and people paying back those loans) which makes an economy grow.

Basically, everything broke down at once and the world economy melted down for about 10 years, followed by those 6 years of fun called WWII. After WWII, several worldwide institutions were set up to make sure that economic conditions couldn't get that bad again (such as the IMF).

So far, they've worked. This isn't to say everything couldn't fall apart again, but since the end of WWII, the recessions have been easier and the depressions non-existant, which wasn't the case before the Great Depression. If you want to see a fun economic century, take a look at the boom-bust cycles in the US in the 1800s...

-jon

What's wrong with these people?

[child_of_mercy]

Surely it's not that hard to work out the business plan?

The costs are well known, they know what they are planning to charge.

They know how much Venture Capital they have.

And knowing that they go offering a service hoping someone will just give them more money to make them viable!

Re:What's wrong with these people?

[scoove]

Good objective points from child_of_mercy. Unfortunately VC's in general are not objective.

The costs are well known, they know what they are planning to charge.

Costs are a funny thing. Look at your typical VC-funded startup. Instead of "doing the right thing", they get told (by the VC) to buy "solutions from Lucent" (or insert your favorite dead but still doesn't know it 1950s culture company repackaged-for-your-enjoyment dot-com name here).

Remember the VC line: "You don't have time to grow organically! We've projected you to triple in size every month in order to facilitate our exit strategy."

Having spent the last 2.6 years at one of these, I watched people spend $5 million a shot on things that cost...well... two linux boxes and a good weekend. Their answer to the challenge? "Hell if I know. The VCs said they'd fund it." (Seriously, ever here of Billdats? That's the Lucent word for "takes a linux boxen, perl, ftp and a good weekend... $3 million please")

They know how much Venture Capital they have.

But they're always planning on more. It's a drug. The best companies I've seen never got hooked, unfortunately.

And knowing that they go offering a service hoping someone will just give them more money to make them viable!

Does throwing money at bad management, bad vendors, bad processes, etc. make them viable over time? Usually it just grows very big ineffective companies. (Of course, it does make for very nice Ebay auctions of the spoils from such chapter 7's...)

Nothing beats the power of the market to kill off the weak VC ploys.

*scoove*

Re:What's wrong with these people?

[Ronin Developer]

Interesting. And, you are right. When the VC's come along, more often than not, they are allowed to make decisions on your behalf (or you don't get the money).

Some of these decisions are aimed at bolstering other investments they have made. Some are based upon false information provided by the other companies. And, believe it or not, some are made with the intent of driving you into the ground so they can take a loss on their taxes.

While the last option does, unfortunately,happen, most VCs are in the game to make money. You end up selling your soul to many VCs and they drive the ship. In the end, you hope you make enough money to spin off a new venture that doesn't require the assistance of VCs.

Our economy is taking a downturn as most investors realize that the dot-coms were a shame and now are covering their losses. They are selling to extract their profits. Are we headed to a depression. I think not...but what the hell do I know. Soon the market will stabilize and we start the cycle all over again. All I know is that I can buy into the market right now at bargain prices. It's like 1984 all over again.

RD

You forget another sad fact of capitalism.

[Wakko Warner]

Many of these customers had no choice. If the only broadband provider in your neighborhood is Northpoint (which is the case for many, many people, unfortunately), you have no alternative, and, therefore, the concept of consumer choice is nonexistant.

-A.P.

--
* CmdrTaco is an idiot.

Re:You forget another sad fact of capitalism.

[Raptor CK]

Tell that to the mail server I had to set up.

I'm currently using Megapath, and they've provided excellent service. Top-notch, really. However, it's over a Northpoint line. I may lose my connection because I picked a service that was the best at the time (and is still up there), and that's only because of one bad decision on their part.

I don't need broadband at home for my own workstation, although it's been nice. I do need it for email and so on. It's fairly tough to run a domain from a dialup, especially if you can't get a static IP.

Northpoint going away affects a lot more than you think. In addition to ADSL users, it affects SDSL customers of their clients, and even some small businesses that just couldn't afford a fractional T1.

It's not as cut and dry as you'd like to believe.

Raptor

What DSL providers are there?

[John_Booty]

So what other major DSL providers does this leave? Besides Covad, and the local telcos (which typically suck). Hopefully, a lot of the customers left stranded by Northpoint will migrate to ISP's that go through Covad...

Just FYI to anyone interested in DSL...I would have to say that I've had an excellent experience with Covad. The technician showed up three minutes EARLY and the installation took about 3 minutes. Speakeasy is my ISP and I have nothing but good things to say about them, too... including their liberal policies about customers running servers over their lines (a rarity for broadband providers).
http://www.bootyproject.org

Re:What DSL providers are there?

[raju1kabir]

I will second that. I had nothing but pleasant experience with Covad.

I will third that. Have lots of Covad lines in various business sites; the installers are always friendly and competent, the service always works. For what it is, it can't be beat. Covad is my daddy.

I compare it to the Verizon DSL I have at home (they were the only game in town a few years ago when I signed up; now I'm too lazy to change, and I'm used to my static IP), and it's not even close. Verizon has frequent slowdowns and outages - frequent enough to annoy me but just shy of enough to push me to leaving. I would never again order Verizon if I had a choice, though: They simply don't know how to do data, or to provide decent customer service.

Every time I read one of these stories, I shudder at what would happen if Covad went away; there doesn't really seem to be a credible alternative. I'm guessing it'd be back to fractional T1 for many times the price.

Re:What now?

[cymen]

(Since you're posting here I'll assume your a geek - here is my geek review of Telocity):

Email is outsourced and sucks (unrealiable, down, etc) - run your own if you don't already...

NNTP (usenet) was awesome but they have cut key people and one of those was their news admin so currently it is falling over but being worked on (speeds are good now but only within the last week, management has required the current people to fix the news server enough so they can get stats on how broken it is so that they can then give them a budget to upgrade it, WTF!).

Network is good when we don't have routing problems - at one point in time we were down for days but lately it has been good. I get a consistent 85-90 Kb/s down (and up) the pipe.

So go ahead and run your own server (which they allow) for email (ideally with a backup mx outside of Telocity for when they go down). They have an offer with on usenet provider to get a free account for a year to make up for the news problems (I haven't tried them yet so no comment).

I used to work at Northpoint

[VudooCrush]

I know why their bankrupt..they pay their employee's wayyy too much..Not that I complained or anything =). I went from being a LVL 2 tech. at a local ISP to an ITAC at Northpoint. ( copper line testing, DSLAM configurations, etc. ). They paid me $22/hr. *but*, they made me work 5am-4pm, so with all that OT it came out to be roughly $72k/year. Pretty sweet for an 18yr. old guy who still lives at home.

I have Northpoint DSL,

[Zeus305]

and it is such a shame that they are bankrupting, because I have been so pleased with their service over the last year. They're instalation and service was excelent. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I have loved my static ip, and I got such a great deal ($30 / month) that i dont know if I will be able to fnd such an offer again. I need a drink. Anyway, there is more info at http://www.ev1dsl.net. My ISP (Everyone's Internet), who is one of the largest customers of Northpoint, sent this e-mail:

You are receiving this message because you have DSL service with Everyones Internet and that DSL service is provided through Northpoint.

You may, or may not be aware, that Northpoint declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-January with the plan to find a buyer who would purchase the company and keep the system active. There is a court hearing today that will determine if this will be the case of if the company's assets will be liquidated and the network taken down.

Until early this week, all indications were that there was a buyer that would buy Northpoint and keep the company alive. We have since learned, (from a source deemed reliable but we cannot be sure) that at least one leading bidder plans to purchase the hard assets and shutter the network. The effect of the latter possibility is that EV1 could no longer provide you with DSL.

Let me remind everyone that, as of this moment, EV1 is still under contract with Northpoint for your lines and you are still under contract with EV1 for your line.

Later this morning in California, there will be a court hearing regarding this matter. We will provide an additional update once this hearing has ended.

I would like to assure you that we are participating in the Northpoint bankruptcy process, have filed a number of motions, and are seeking to protect the interests of our company and our subscribers.

EV1 is committed to assisting our subscribers through this process. We have assembled a team which began work this morning. We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

In the event of a shutdown of the Northpoint Network, we will provide each DSL subscriber with a temporary dial-up account at no cost to ensure you have some form of Internet service during the transition. We are also negotiating with several companies who offer competing broadband technology to offer you reduced or eliminated installation costs, expedited installation, and a simplified ordering process.

The above is all of the information that we have at the present time. After the court hearing, we will provide you with an additional update.

For up-to-the-minute status updates, you may check www.ev1dsl.net . We will post the information here as well as send it in email form. In the event that the Northpoint network will be shuttered, we will provide you with a telephone number to reach our DSL Response Team direct who will be able to assist you.

Hoping for the best,

Robert Marsh
Head Surfer
Ramhs@ev1.net

Re:What now?

[Twid]

Check out DSLreports.com before you pick your next provider. They have community reviews of DSL and other broadband providers, including user-contributed bandwidth and packet loss reports. Very cool!

(And before someone accuses me like on my last post, no, I don't work for them... 8-) )

- Todd

Using Northpoint through Best/Verio

[ewhac]

I have 416K SDSL service through Best/Verio. Northpoint is the actual DSL provider, and they've done nothing to annoy me. Actual transfer rates are typically in the 480K bit range. Occasionally, the entire net will vanish, killing my Quake/HalfLife games, but that's more down to Best/Verio's routers going apesh*t than Northpoint's equipment. In fact, I can't ever recall a ping failing to get through to Best's nameserver, which tells me Northpoint had their act together.

I really can't understand why two of the biggest DSL providers are on the ropes. I can't use cable modem service (I want to run servers), and I really don't want PacificSmell's ADSL offering (I want to run servers, which needs more than 128K upstream). I don't know of any other DSL network providers in my area (SF Peninsula). I'm not rich enough to afford a full T1, and PacificSmell would probably fsck it up, anyway.

Even if it means I have to change out my DSL modem, I'd prefer to be switched over to Covad. Maybe the influx of new customers will help keep them going.

Schwab

Re:Using Northpoint through Best/Verio

[ewhac]

But don't you also need an ISP to provide mail hosting, an NNTP source and stuff? Or will Covad do that?

I don't have my own domain yet. I have a box I bought that is intended to function as the Web and mail server, with FreeBSD 4.0 installed. But I don't want to go live until I've learned how to properly secure the box. Otherwise, I risk becoming another nuisance to the community.

Schwab

Maybe the prices are too low?

[Baki]

In Europe the prices are much higher. Before you all start shouting that the telecom companies here are so inefficient or still ruled by old (fading) monopolies, there might be other factors (too):

For example in Switzerland you can have an ADSL service @ 256/64 for about $60/month, and 512/128 at $90-$100 per month.

That may seem very high by US standards, and maybe it is overpriced, but on the other hand:

• They will provide the service to the whole country within one year, i.e. not only to the bigger cities but also to all rural areas. Companies do not only pick the most profitable areas and leave the rest in the cold.
• They make profit very fast, thus the chances for good services and stability (no bankrupcies) is very good.

It seems in the US many make immense investments, just to get market share first, in fact giving the service too cheap. Later people will find out that the service is bad, might even be discontinued and/or prices have to be raised.

Re:Maybe the prices are too low?

[FFFish]

And in Canada, our (ex-) Telco monopolies have done much the same.

First, back in the good old days, when they were tame monopolies, there was a consumer advocacy control board that absolutely ruled them: the Telcos couldn't fart without permission.

As a result, we had telephone service in *every* community in Canada. I doubt many people quite comprehend what this means, because they don't quite comprehend how big Canada is and how remote its Northern communities are.

And when equipment was upgraded, it was always upgraded with the latest technology, not hand-me-downs from a larger community. A mechanical switch in Podunk, north BC, might be replaced with the Northern Telecom whiz-bang 2001, long before the existing NT golly-gee 1995 in Vancouver got upgraded. [In the US, if the small community *ever* got the upgrade, they'd get the old 1995 model, while the bigger centre got the 2001 model.)

Aaaaanyway, we had some of the lowest total ownership costs in the world, and all because we had a tame monopoly.

Bringing us up to this century, the telcos are now largely unregulated. This has caused some issues with repair and customer services, and suchlike.

But we still have kick-ass DSL. In BC, pretty much every community in the south half of the province has DSL service; and if they don't have DSL, they have access to cable.

I'm about 50' past the DSL limits, but managed to finagle service anyway; I've got 1400/512kbps service, for $45 per month, including modem rental. The service has been excellent over the past year-and-a-bit, despite the demand for service increasing at least eight-fold in that period.

Sure, it's basically a monopoly service: there are no real alternatives to DSL service. But it's cheap, reliable and *it isn't going to disappear.*

If only we had kept the monopoly tame: we'd have service to every darn home in the province by now...

--

Re:Maybe the prices are too low?

[FFFish]

Who cares if it helped NT? It means that our podunk communities aren't connected to fifty-year-old mechanical switches... something that you can't say for the USA.

Let me repeat: our podunk communities have DSL service, because our telco monopoly was forced into maintaining a high level of service and upgrades for those communities.

Left to the wonders of American-style pseudo-capitalism, they'd have been up shit creek for the next ten years, because there's no money in servicing them.

--

MSN DSL uses Northpoint

[Whackass Vinyl]

Okay, so it's lame, I get my DSL through MSN. How else am I going to get 1.5M/128K for $40/month?

Dear MSN HighSpeed DSL customer:

I regret to inform you that MSN is temporarily unable to provide you with MSN HighSpeed DSL service. We apologize for this situation and any inconvenience you may experience. We are temporarily suspending our DSL service because our DSL wholesale provider, NorthPoint Communications, is unable to provide wholesale access to MSN. Due to this unfortunate circumstance, your DSL service will be discontinued within the next week. You may have read or heard recently in the news about the rapid changes in the DSL market, the turmoil in the capital markets, and the difficulties this has caused for wholesale DSL providers. As a result of these unfavorable conditions, today NorthPoint announced that it will no longer be able to provide DSL access.

We still are in the early stages of the broadband revolution. MSN remains committed to DSL as a viable broadband solution and delivering the best broadband access experience for our customers. Moving forward, we will focus on working with leading broadband providers who are less vulnerable to fluctuations in the market. We also will continue to deploy other broadband solutions to meet our customers' growing needs. We are committed to our current DSL retail distribution channels, like RadioShack and Best Buy, and will continue to work with them in the future to provide these broadband solutions as they become available.

In the interim, so as not to interrupt your Internet access, we are offering you the following:
* You will receive 6 months of monthly dial-up MSN Internet Access free of charge. *
* Your e-mail address will remain the same.
* If you have been charged for this month's DSL service, we will process a credit to your credit card.
* You will receive a $25 gift certificate, within 2 weeks, to use with any MSN eShop merchant.
* If you signed up for the MSN HighSpeed Standard Plan and paid $149.99 for the modem, then we will credit the modem price to your credit card.

To assist you in setting up your dial-up MSN Internet Access account, we will be sending you a copy of this letter via postal mail along with instructions for setting up your dial-up account.

While we hope that you remain an MSN customer, we understand you may want to choose another DSL provider. To make this easier for you, we are waiving all termination fees applicable to your DSL plan. Go to the following Web site http://supportservices.msn.com/us/qanda.asp#hspeed for a list of other DSL providers and answers to other questions you might have.

If you are using Web-based e-mail with MSN Explorer or MSN Hotmail, your e-mail account will be available as long as you are using those services.

In the event that you experience any difficulties, or if you have any questions or concerns regarding your MSN service we have a team of support professionals ready to assist you. To speak to an MSN Support representative, please contact our MSN DSL Customer Support Center at: 1-877-229-2295 or e-mail dslfeedback@msn.com. The Support Center is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Please print or save this e-mail so that you may have access to this number for future reference.

Again, I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. As soon as our new MSN HighSpeed DSL service is available, we will contact you with a special offer. We appreciate your understanding of this difficult situation and look forward to providing you with the best broadband solution in the near future.

Sincerely,

Ted Kummert
Vice President
MSN Internet Access and Customer Support



* Additional phone and/or long distance toll charges may apply. It is the customer's responsibility to check with their phone company to determine if additional phone charges may apply. Local market network activity and capacity may affect access availability.

Time to look at Covad... I'd better not have to pay $300 for another DSL modem (although they do make nice, warm kitty beds).

Re:MSN DSL uses Northpoint

[be-fan]

Actually, you got to give MSN their due. Their termination plan was pretty high-class.

Eat all your bandwidth, children in China are.....

[unitron]

Great. It's getting harder to get DSL in the USA instead of easier while China just signed a deal with Alcatel to get 130 million DSL lines.

In the meantime those of us stuck with dialup are members of the ISP of the month club.

Re:AT&T Not taking over customers

[Stephen Samuel]

This would definitely make sense, if AT&T thought that they could charge more for their DSL connections. If they took the old contract, they'd have to keep the old pricing.. If they 'have to' renegotiate a new contract with the old NorthPoint customers, they can renegotiate the whole contract -- including pricing and conditions

You would become a new AT&T customer, using old NorthPoint equipment, as opposed to a grandfathered-in NorthPoint customer.
--

I am a customer

[benenglish]

I'm one of the affected subscribers.

What I'm most interested in is the way the ISPs handle this. My service provider, ev1.net, has a good rep for customer service. Here's what they've done:

1. Sent out an immediate email to customers telling them what was happening.
2. Set up a web page with *very* frequent updates on how they're going to handle this.
3. Revoked all early termination penalties freeing subscribers to seek alternate providers without the penalties required by our contracts. (They didn't have to do this. Per the contract with subscribers, they could have required that we continue to pay for service we weren't receiving and still be subject to early termination penalties.)
4. Set up dial up accounts for all DSL customers. Those accounts are free until customers can find another provider, although I assume they won't remain free forever.
5. DSL customers without modems can drop by the office for a free (generic, I'm sure) 56K modem. Or they'll ship it to you overnight for $8 or so. (The details aren't completely settled.)
6. Established a special telephone number for limited DSL tech support. (They lost their DSL support structure in this mess.)
7. Put together a customer service team to answer questions about all this, along with a special number to reach that team.

And there are probably some other things I've forgotten. In all, the thing that impresses me the most is that they are trying to answer questions as they come up and aren't simply ducking for cover, sticking their fingers in their ears, and hoping this goes away. My initial impression is that they're dealing with it reasonably well.

I've heard that some other ISPs caught in similar situations have been far less helpful.

I'd love to hear of the experiences of other folks with other providers so that I can gauge whether or not the level of service I'm getting during this screw-up is good, bad, or somewhere in between.

ATT is buying Northpoint

[selectspec]

CNET is claiming ATT is buying NorthPoint's assets.

Re:ATT is buying Northpoint

[Archeopteryx]

Yes, and at a fire sale price, well below the value of the installed base of equipment. I think this is a good thing, as AT&T certainly has the resources to stay in the game for the long haul.

Re:There's a big difference...

[Lordrashmi]

What about when freaking everybody has cable and is sharing your bandwidth? A friend has that and IT SUCKS!!

I am very happy with my SDSL line (of course I work for an ISP, it goes directly into a priority pipe, yadda yadda yadda).

Oh BTW, it is Northpoint, so I guess I am kinda F*CKED!!!!

Re:AT&T Not taking over customers

[Lordrashmi]

Nope, that information is correct. I work for an ISP that sold northpoint lines. All the northpoint lines will be dropped, disconected, axed, etc etc

Sucks to be me

AT&T, not Bells

[billstewart]

It's important to differentiate here - this is AT&T, which currently offers DSL using Covad's CLEC services, not the Regional Bell Operating Companies like PacBell and USWest and Ball Atlantic, most of which offer DSL service themselves.

This sucks ass.

[be-fan]

As one of the NorthPoint customers, I can say that this genuinely sucks ass. I live in Mclean, and I have 416K SDSL service from NorthPoint. First, I get consistant 48K downloads, at all times of the day. Second, I have a 100ms ping to almost every (fast) server you'd care to name (/., of course, times out on every ping test ;) Lastly, its SDSL service, so its like having a miniature T1 in your house. All this for $50 a month (DSL is *damn* expensive around here!) If NorthPoint is going out of business, I'm screwed. I either have to deal with Covad (sucks ass) or Verizon (sucks even more ass). The good companys never do make it, do they?

Re:Wrong category

[sulli]

Too bad there isn't a Fucked category...

In Contrast to good service: XO Communications

[FreeUser]

XO Communications, formerly concentric, is an example of how an ISP should NOT handle this type of situation. In contrast to other reports in this discussion with respect to other, more responsible ISPs, XO kept the situation completely under wraps, sending out no notifications by email or otherwise.

Indeed, when our internet service was down this morning we placed a service call and were told that "XO is unaware of any major outages." Meanwhile, for at least the last six weeks they were, apparently, sereptitiously moving their some of their customers to alternative DSL services (a friend of mine owns a consulting company whose customers were serreptitiously switched ... the fact that these customers were legal firms probably had something to do with their good fortune. XO did not tell their customers what they were doing ... their DSL service simply got interrupted for a couple of hours mid-day for "unspecified upgrades").

After dialing in to a personal account from a laptop and finding the story here on slashdot we called XO's customer service back and finally got them to admit that our DSL link would never be coming back up. When asked if they could swing us to another DSL providor over the weekend we were told to contact Sales regarding new service. Of course, we will be contacting Sales, but not with XO.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

We are fortunate, in that there happens to be a tier one providor with a DSLAM in our building, through whom we will be able to get reconnected on an emergency basis sometime Monday. Hundreds of other XO customers were equally blindsided, and not nearly so lucky.

Here's hoping someone more litigous than I sues their socks off (and here's being glad my home service is through 21st Century broadband rather than DSL).