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

Here We Go Again

[Ulwarth]

When Northpoint went under, my ISP sent me an email saying that it would be up for another 30 days so that they could switch us over to someone else. Two days later the connection died permenantly.

I just got the email about Covad from my ISP yesterday. Hopefully this time I'll at least have time to swi

Awash in hardware

[hndrcks]

I have provisioned DSL accounts for several offices and clients, and one thing I have experienced with EVERY vendor is some version of the following:

1. Order service.
2. Get DSL modem/router in mail.
3. Tech comes to install, brings preconfigured modem with him.
4. Tech leaves, but doesn't take other modem with him.
5. Months go by, nobody ever asks for the extra modem.

Currently, I have a tall stack of Flowpoint, 3com, Netopia and Lucent routers in my server room - 11 of them. How can anyone make money in this way? Northpoint, I know you are gone and don't want the routers - but Covad? NAS? Rythms? Do you want your hardware?

I have a Qwest line ordered - maybe I'll get two Ciscos!

Screwed by a Monopoly

[smartin]

I don't know Covad's full story but I feel kind of bad for them because their problems may not entirely be their fault. I tried for 3 months last year to get a DSL line, Covad was always prepared to do it but were dependent on Verizon. Verizon never showed up for a single appointment and consistently reported that they did and had no access to the property. Turns out that was their standard approach to dealing with other companies customers. Pretty hard to survive in a market where you live under the thumb of the ruling monopoly.

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.

I'd like to be able to borrow 1.4 billion...

[Robber Baron]

...and not have to pay most of it back! I'm beginning to believe that certain unscrupulous people are starting to take advantage of the talking-head spawned hype surrounding the "dot-com meltdown" in order to get out from under their financial responsibilities. It also illustrates a truism: No matter how much money is raised, a poorly led company will find some way to piss it all away quickly.

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.

And don't forget about Rhythms...

[Masem]

Who filed for Chapter 11 last Thursday (8/2) and are expected to make a decison as to whether to restructure or shutdown/sellout by 8/10. (from Yahoo