Although broadband internet provider Excite@Home filed for bankruptcy on Friday [WAMN: 01-Oct-01], several of its biggest cable partners have vowed to continue offering their customers Excite’s high-speed web services.
Excite promised its 3.7 million subscribers that services would be uninterrupted, with operations continuing through the bankruptcy proceedings. It plans to sell its broadband access business for $307m to AT&T.
Excite had deals with over a dozen cable TV companies to supply their customers with broadband access, including AT&T, which has promised to keep its high-speed web service running.
Another partner, Cox Communications, welcomed the proposed purchase of Excite’s assets by AT&T, even though the two are rivals in the US cable-TV market. Its exclusive deal with Excite runs out next June, at which point, it is thought, Cox was planning to open up its web access business to a number of suppliers.
Canadian cable firm Rogers Communications, which provides Excite to its 378,000 internet subscribers under an exclusive contract running until March 2003, also announced its services would be uninterrupted and welcomed the AT&T deal. It added that it had “contingency plans in place” should Excite no longer be able to offer broadband access.
Charter Communications, which does not have an exclusive deal with Excite, said it was investigating whether it could shift subscribers to a rival ISP on its network. “We’ve already started taking steps to make sure customers don’t lose service,” said a spokesman.
News source: Adweek.com
