lscott5
join:2001-01-04
West Palm Beach, FL
|  Oh well....
As one of the many Northpoint users that were left high and dry I guess that pretty much ends any chance I have of getting my DSL reconnected.
It's a shame. I have the line, it was running and everything but BellSouth still says that my number/line can not support DSL.
Go Figure! |
|
BrianDamage
We Are The Hounds From Hell
Premium
join:2001-08-14
Rowlett, TX
clubs: 
| Thing is, I brought this up back when Northpoint was in Chap7 and AT&T showed interest.
I knew then that this would end up chapping their backsides once somebody came to the realization that they would not be able to legally break into the DSL game via this method.
I guess nobody else was listening.
Oh well...it wasn't my $135 mil.
--
The rich get richer, the poorer get the picture, the bombs never hit you when yer down so low...some got pollution, others evolution, there must be some solution but I just don't know.... |
|
AlterEgo
join:2001-01-09
Bayside, NY | reply to lscott5
As a Northpoint shareholder (they're still in my account... a glaring $0.00 that keeps reminding me of the dreadful way in which it met its demise), I share your disappointment. "Left high and dry": exactly how I feel. |
|
pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| said by AlterEgo  :
a glaring $0.00 that keeps reminding me of the dreadful way in which it met its demise
At least their stock price can't get any worse 
If AT&T is looking for a CEO, I will be more than happy to take the job. What kind of idiot signs a contract without reading the fine print? Sounds like the fools who run Sendo!
--
DRM == Doesn't Read MP3s |
|
Go Chargers7
Fa Shizzle Ma Nizzle
Premium
join:2002-09-24
Huntington Beach, CA | The same idiots that sell off the one division that made them any money to Comcast.
--
Made in America; tested in Japan. |
|
hawgwild
join:2000-06-16
Scottsdale, AZ
| reply to lscott5
As another Northpoint refugee I still have mixed feeling about the whole thing. At first my DSL line was great, at 208/208 it was a major upgrade to a dial up connection even though it took over a month to get US West to actually connect the copper. But when the ISP that sold me the Northpoint line went belly up and the accounts were bought and then sold right away by Megapath, that was the beginning of the end. The company that bought my account, Telocity (herein known as Teloshitty) was the worst ISP, and not by a little, I've ever dealt with. From their proprietary "frankenstein" modem, to their unscrupulous business practices, to the outright lies they told during the Northpoint liquidation, puts them on my Top 10 Worst companies to deal with. I'd go back to dial up before I'd deal with them again.
As a matter of fact I did go back to dial up, for almost 6 months until Cox wired my neighborhood for cable internet. Now instead of a 208/208 DSL connection for $50 a month, I have a 3000/256 (and I usually surpass that by a bit) cable connection that's rock solid. I wouldn't go back to DSL unless it were free.
The people at AT&T who made that decision deserve to lose their jobs, it was monumentally stupid. But I guess they're big enough to absorb a loss like that and survive. I guess it's probably just chump change to AT&T. |
|
AlterEgo
join:2001-01-09
Bayside, NY | What made Northpoint's demise so tragic-- besides the fact that I owned share in the company-- was the fact that, as I understood it, Northpoint provided a great service to its subscribers. |
|
redstepchild
Premium
join:2002-01-04
Birmingham, AL | reply to Go Chargers7
Saved!
Um I am happy the sold us off to Comcast.. Now we won't sink w/ the Titanic!
--
RedStepChild@dslr.net |
|
AkumalDave
Life's A Beach
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-20
Minneapolis, MN
| reply to lscott5
Still skeptical
If AT&T's intent was truly to move into the DSL market, WHY did they summarily disconnect 110,000 (presumably) paying Northpoint customers? Even at rates that might not have been realistic (my 784k/784k line cost $39.95 per month), they would have had some cash flow to help their "expansion plan".
I am still skeptical that that was the reason AT&T purchased the Northpoint assets. IMHO, more probable scenarios are that they wanted to move into local phone service (before their cable network was capable) or they wanted to kill off the competition and drive more customers to ATTBI (not that they had a presence in all the Northpoint markets yet - it took them 1 1/2 more years to get cable internet to my neighborhood).
Don't look to me for any sympathy, AT&T. You're the jerks who took over my cable company and immediately raised rates - discontinuing my grandfathered-in programming package that had survived two previous ownership changes. The same jerks who cut the cord on the Northpoint network when, I believe, the option to keep it alive existed. And, a division of the same jerks who assured me my 7/7 phone & internet dialup plan would NOT change, contrary to the press releases....then, two months later, cancelled the plan and offered me a more expensive one in its place. I chuckle every time I receive one of your "We hate to lose a customer..." and "We want you back..." letters. Sometimes, bad things happen to good companies. This is NOT the case this time around...
Dave |
|
BrianDamage
We Are The Hounds From Hell
Premium
join:2001-08-14
Rowlett, TX
clubs:
| If AT&T's intent was truly to move into the DSL market, WHY did they summarily disconnect 110,000 (presumably) paying Northpoint customers?
Because AT&T bought Northpoint's assets, not the subscriber base. They were prohibited from servicing the customer base already in place.
Their plan was to buy the network, let it go dark, and then turn it back up using their own circuits.
I know, because I had talks with some of their managers about it after the acquisition, and again mentioned the cable agreement as being an impediment to a DSL deployment, which they denied at the time.
Don't look to me for any sympathy, AT&T...
I think that if anything they deserve sympathy for not having the foresight to see that they would never be able to make a go of this, at least until after so much time had passed that the entire DSL network they purchased had become hopefully obsolete.
They were pretty damn stupid in what they did, and now they are writing it off, because that's all they can do.
--
The rich get richer, the poorer get the picture, the bombs never hit you when yer down so low...some got pollution, others evolution, there must be some solution but I just don't know.... |
|
