At Ars Technica, Comcast customers vent frustrations help each other around connection and transition issues as Excite@Home ceases operations in a few short hours (12:00 AM PST). They have outsourced NNTP news server access to Giganews, whom only allows 1 GB of downloads a month, hardly enough for cable customers.
To make matters worse, they have opened their proprietary networks to competitor ISP’s in a effort to make a peace offering to the FCC, whom is likely pissed about the ATT/Comcast broadband merger. This isn’t bad in and of its own accord but, many feel that the network has been poorly designed and cannot suffer much more strain from existing users. Much less new customers and competitors customers. Many of us look at Cox, Rogers, Road Runner and Charter customers with envy. Not to mention any DSL customer is in a much better position that a cable user with Comcast or AT&T.
The real problem is that there is not a good alternative besides dial-up access for many of us. I have not spoken to a single individual who is satisfied with the transition, the level of service from Comcast, or is confident that things will improve. I fear that business scholars will look back upon this time as the dark ages of broadband… and marvel at why a compny such as Excite@Home, with millions of users paying $40.00 – $60.00 a month, could collapse under it’s own weight.