Bankrupt Excite@Home Corp. signed several major MSOs -- with the notable
exception of AT&T Broadband -- to three-month interim-service contracts
Monday.
But late in the day, the cable-modem service also saw part owner AT&T
Corp. withdraw its $307 million asset bid from the table.
The bid, widely reviled by bondholders as being far below a fair market
price, was nevertheless the only formal bid.
The three-month interim contracts -- which must still be approved by U.S.
Bankruptcy Court Judge Thomas Carlson within 20 days -- have been signed by Cox
Communications Inc., Comcast Corp., Insight Communications Co. Inc., Mediacom
Communications Corp., Midcontinent Communications and Canada's Rogers Cable
Inc.
Cox and Comcast will each pay about $160 million for the period to keep their
cable-modem customers online.
Insight will kick in $10 million as it begins transitioning its customers to
alternative Internet-service providers on a market-by market basis.
Midcontinent has also signed the contract, but the amount it will pay was not
available.
Rogers, meanwhile will ante up about $15 million. The Toronto-based cabler
has already moved almost 70 percent of its cable-modem customers to its own
system.
Charter Communications Inc., however, is still in negotiations for its
contract.
Charter has the majority of its cable-modem customers switched over to its
own 'Charter Pipeline' service. However, it has about 14,000 subscribers in
Medford and Kennewick, Ore., who are still on the Excite@Home network.
Meanwhile, AT&T withdrew its bid for Excite@Home's assets late
Monday.
That followed the disconnection of some 850,000 AT&T Broadband
cable-modem customers over the weekend after the Ma Bell cable subsidiary balked
at signing an interim-service agreement.
AT&T Broadband is busy migrating customers over to its own network this
week.
So far, it has moved 500,000 customers off the Excite@Home network, and it
plans to be 80 percent complete by the end of Tuesday. By then, customers in
Oregon; Vancouver, Wash.; Dallas; and San Francisco should have made the switch
to @attbi electronic-mail accounts.
Up next on the schedule are customers in Illinois; Denver; and Salt Lake City
Wednesday, followed by users in Pittsburgh, Sacramento, Calif.; Michigan; and
the Rocky Mountain region Thursday and, finally, Hartford, Conn.,
Friday.
