bruceb news

AT&T now owns most of the cable system in Sonoma County. They’ve amusingly named the cable division “AT&T Broadband,” and cable Internet service has been rolled out to limited parts of Windsor and Healdsburg. Just for fun, I spoke again to the AT&T @Home division that handles Internet access. As of today, AT&T @Home has no record of the existence of a city named “Sebastopol,” much less a date to roll out service – and they’re looking at a schedule filling up the next year. They also have no knowledge of the existence of a city named “Rohnert Park” – home of the local AT&T Broadband office. […] continued

More about Pegasus Communications. Pegasus turns out to be a big company, but relatively new to the broadband world. In addition to their consumer service described below, they have two business-class satellite services. Pegasus Express Plus allows up to twenty computers to share the signal and removes some of the bandwidth restrictions that work behind the scenes in the consumer service. The Plus service is reasonably priced at $99-$279/month, based on number of users, and will be available in June. Pegasus Express Pro attempts to provide the equivalent of a fractional T-1, with high bandwith, quality of service guarantees, and the like. […] continued

Pegasus Communications gave me a call this morning. They’re going to start taking orders in a couple of days, and promise to have equipment delivered and installation scheduled within a week after that. Pricing is the same as the Orbitsat.com offer – $499 for equipment, $199 for installation, $69.95 for monthly service. If they call back, I’ll place the order with them and cancel with Orbitsat.com.

How about if I use this page to share my experience with satellite Internet access? Okay with everybody?

When we last checked, Starband was the only company offering two-way satellite service. During the first couple of months of 2001, there were lots of problems (read the messages at DSLReports.com about Starband’s apologies and refunds and discounts). People seem to have calmed down recently.

DirecPC is slowly rolling out its own two-way satellite service. Pricing is fuzzy and it’s hard to get any information. Earthlink has apparently delayed its rollout of the service. The link on the Earthlink site to request more information is broken. […] continued

There’s no good news about DSL any more. Prices are going up, availability is going down, the horror stories about installations keep multiplying, and Northpoint’s demise has everyone scared about relying on any provider besides Pacific Bell. And Pacific Bell’s motivation to support DSL is unclear. Here’s one article among many bemoaning the sorry state of the industry.

Last night 100,000 DSL subscribers were shut off after negotiations broke down between bankrupt Northpoint Communications and a dozen ISPs. My line is down. Here’s some more info.

I just went and checked the status of satellite Internet connections, since my DSL line may go dead any day now. I’ve got lots of clients growing old waiting for DSL and cable in their areas.

Hughes runs the DirecPC network of satellites. They’re the only satellite company that’s up and running reliably these days. Whenever you see a reference to satellite service from some ISP, the odds are that it’s Hughes’ satellites running behind the scenes.

As of today, the only service available from Hughes is called “one way.” Your computer dials up an ISP, all your outgoing traffic goes through the modem, all your incoming traffic comes thru the satellite. […] continued

Personally, I blame Pacific Bell. A year ago business was thriving for Northpoint and Covad, who acted as wholesalers and contracted with ISPs to set up and maintain DSL connections. The wholesalers were required to rely on Pacific Bell for one phase of the work, though, and Pacific Bell used that as leverage to put them out of business. Pacific Bell underpriced its own DSL at a level the wholesalers couldn’t match, and gave Covad and Northpoint even worse service than it was giving its own customers. The wholesalers couldn’t compete. Northpoint filed for bankruptcy in January and Covad is struggling. […] continued

DirecPC is the satellite Internet service offered by Hughes. It’s been frustrating up to now because it requires a dialup connection for your outgoing traffic. A two-way, always-on satellite connection will be available soon, but it appears that you’ll have to sign up with one of DirecPC’s partners to get the service at first. The most appealing choice is Earthlink, a big ISP that hasn’t exactly distinguished itself with its cruddy DSL service. But you can hope for the best. Here’s their press release with more information.