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

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*

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

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).

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.