Covad Planning For Chapter 11

Logic writes: "According to their press release, Covad Communications Group, Inc. is preparing to file for Chapter 11 protection for restructuring. One of the most important points in the release is Covad Communications Group, Inc.'s operating companies, which provide DSL services to customers, are not expected to be included in the court-supervised proceeding and will continue to operate in the ordinary course of business without any court imposed restrictions,' meaning that the operating companies which deal with service providers (such as Speakeasy, who have endorsed Covad's action) will continue to operate unfettered by the court restrictions, and end-user services should be unaffected. Hopefully." As a Speakeasy customer (at home), I sincerely hope that my connection doesn't go away.

Comments

Re:Well, DUH

[Anonymous Coward]

This is partially true. You can sell it if you offer an asymetric pipe and throw QoS out the window. The home consumer is willing to do this. But for businesses which require high speed upstream bandwidth, high reliability and QoS gaurantees, $40.00 / month is way too low. All the companies which tried to sell Business class service at these prices did a huge disservice to the market by raising their expectations with unmaintainably low prices.

Re:Costs

[cetan]

If you can find me DSL for $40/mo with the same start-up costs as dialup (i.e. zero) I'm your guy...point the way and I'll pay for DSL.

There area lot of people that can't afford to drop $200+ on startup costs and pay the $60, 70, 80 a month. As was pointed out in the first reply to your post, they have one line and dial in on it.

when will they realize...

[jacobcaz]

end users WANT high-speed access, but the majority do NOT WANT to pay extra for it.

My parents love my high-speed access at home and the office, but they will be on 56K until the day they die because they can't justify spending more then $20/mo for dial-access.

It's got to get a lot cheaper before the bandwagon really gets rolling.

Please raise your prices Covad

[Tim Macinta]

If that's what it takes to stay in business, I hope that Covad raises their prices. I would gladly pay almost double what I am now for my Speakeasy service without a second thought considering my only other option is Verizon DSL (which I had previously and which was absolutely the worst customer service experience of my life). Please charge more, Covad - your service actually works (unlike Verizon which was frequently down for weeks on end).

This is exactly what ticked me off about Kozmo. They actually had something (their service) that I would have paid a premium for and yet they still attempted to undercut tradional stores that sold the same products. If they had just charged I little more I could still rent videos in my underwear. So once again, please charge more Covad - Speakeasy is lightyears ahead of Verizon in terms of quality and I will pay a very large premium for that. Besides, I write my DSL off on my taxes anyway so it's not a big deal.

This isnt just bad for home users..

[tk422]

What about small business that rely on DSL for there websites and connections (such as the one i work for). We had a hell of a time when Northpoint turned off the network with no warning.. Now what are we supposed to do if Covad and Rhythems go out of business?

We can't afford T1 speed or anything close to it and cable modems dont normally offer Static IPs etc?

Guess were SOL.

Costs

[wiredog]

Dial up account is $20, second line is $20. If the high speed connection is $40, it's a wash. The reason it's not is the Baby Bells. They don't seem to want DSL, so they charge an arm and a leg for it. The future is probably cable modem.

Well, DUH

[speedbump]

Another one bites the dust. I've been in the Aerospace business, and I've been in the ISP business for almost ten years now, and I gotta say: rocket science is a lot easier than the Internet biz.

I run a dinky little ISP in Colorado, since 1992. We were the first to provide commercial ISDN-speed internet access (even ahead of the local phone company!). When DSL hit the scene, and the telcos created all the insane and unrealistic expectations about the service, I stood up in front of the 200 or so members of the Rocky Mountain Internet User's Group, and I told them that DSL, as priced, was not a long-term winning strategy for businesses. Bandwidth has an actual market value, which is entirely being discounted in the business plans of these startups, amid the sheer lemming optimism of foolish shareholders.

Simply put, you can't supply T1 (or 0.5 T1) speeds for $40/month. To say nothing of the capital investment requirements to build out the infrastructure, which are enormous. Or the tech support staff expenses. Or the marketing. Or the fact that the telcos STILL have a stranglehold on America's communications infrastructure, and internally sell their services to their own internet spin-offs at far lower cost than to their competitors.

But now, the media and the general public are shocked, shocked I tell you, that these companies are falling away like so many body parts off a leper.

Well, DUH.

Result: the Baby Bells win again. The consumers will have to continue to put up with poor tech support, idiotic customer care, and diminishing bandwidth. Oh, and the price will go up.

You got what you deserved, by not supporting your local ISP enough.