By KRISTI E. SWARTZ

EarthLink invested for years in potential replacements for its once-thriving dial-up Internet business: a mobile phone service aimed at teens, citywide wireless high-speed Internet and broadband that runs over utility power lines.

None of them worked.

Plagued by an eroding customer base, EarthLink has managed to stay afloat — and even turn a profit in the first quarter after losing $135 million in 2007 — by slashing its work force in half and abandoning two failed ventures. Now, it's crunch time. CEO Rolla Huff is banking the company's future on the very thing that has caused trouble in the first place: dial-up.

Continues here: »www.ajc.com/services/content/bus···&cxcat=6

EarthLink is going back to the basics of concentrating on providing Internet access – including dialup accounts.

Rolla Huff, the Internet Service provider’s new chief executive officer, said Thursday that the firm would focus on dialup and digital subscriber line ISP business.

EarthLink is inviting SunRocket customers to keep their phone number and continue saving money on their phone bill by switching to EarthLink trueVoice phone service. EarthLink is offering SunRocket customers a special welcome price of $19.95 per month for the first six months, with free activation and no obligations or prepayments required.

By SCOTT LEITH
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
06/25/07

Earthlink named a new president and CEO Monday, ending a long search to replace a top executive who died in January.

The Internet service provider turned to outsider Rolla P. Huff, ex-chairman and CEO of Mpower Communications, rather than hiring from within. Huff replaces interim EarthLink Chief Executive Mike Lunsford, who remains with the company as executive vice president.

Continued: »www.ajc.com/metro/content/busine···ceo.html

Cloudmark, Inc., the global leader in carrier-grade messaging security, today announced that EarthLink, one of the nation's leading Internet service providers (ISPs), has selected Cloudmark Authority(TM) to help fight messaging abuse. EarthLink will apply Cloudmark Authority software at the network level to help protect EarthLink's more than 5 million subscribers from spam, phishing and other messaging threats.

PCWorld.com
by: Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
April 27, 2007


EarthLink Inc. is pulling in the reins on its municipal Wi-Fi business, focusing on existing deals and big cities for the rest of this year, in a move that raises questions about the growing trend of city-wide wireless networks.

The ISP (Internet service provider) will keep working on projects it's already committed to and continue talking to other cities, but will focus on large cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago, Chief Financial Officer Kevin Dotts said on a conference call Thursday following the release of EarthLink's first-quarter earnings. The company lost US$30 million in the quarter, or $0.24 per share, as more subscribers left its traditional dial-up business.


Continued: »www.pcworld.com/article/id,13131···cle.html

EarthLink, along with other ISPs and Time Warner Telecom, went to court on Friday to dispute the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision to free wireline telecom carriers from line-sharing obligations.

The 2005 FCC decision puts telecoms like Verizon and AT&T on an equal regulatory footing with cable modem providers, giving them no obligation to lease their broadband lines to competitors.

Continues here

Customers who sign up for EarthLink's DSL (digital subscriber line) Internet access will be offered a TiVo Series 2 device and TiVo's service, with rebates on the cost of the DVR, according to an EarthLink representative. The companies will start offering the option to new and existing EarthLink customers later this spring, the representative said Tuesday.

LivePerson, Inc., a provider of online conversion solutions, today announced that EarthLink has launched the industry’s first proactive live chat capability developed exclusively for customer service on the company’s web site.

Powered by LivePerson’s Timpani™ platform, EarthLink can now identify and engage site visitors most likely to abandon self-help or call for assistance and proactively offer an immediate, live, text-based chat with a customer support expert. By proactively offering live chat assistance to customers, EarthLink increased agent productivity by 14 percent during the initial implementation and realized customer satisfaction levels seven percent higher than similar service channels.

Continues here

Earthlink and Sana Security have announced the availability of their software product named Earthlink Protect and Control Center 2.0 with AttackShield.

This application protects the consumer from brand new threats using behavioral analysis technology from Sana Security.

The companies claim that this application can block access to malicious software without any need for an identifying signature. This technology supplements the suite’s existing signature-based antispyware and antivirus protection.

Continues here

EarthLink President and Chief Executive Charles "Garry" Betty died Tuesday because of complications of cancer, the company said Wednesday.

Betty, who was 49, took a leave of absence in November after being diagnosed with "a serious form of cancer." He joined the company in 1996.

ATLANTA, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Does the expression, "Hurry up and wait" apply to your computer? With the launch of EarthLink's PC FineTune(TM) this frustratingly true statement can be eliminated thanks to tools that optimize PC speed and functionality.

ATLANTA and BEDFORD, Mass., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- EarthLink, (Nachrichten) Inc.

ATLANTA – Gary Betty, chief executive officer of EarthLink, has cancer and has taken a leave of absence from the company.

EarthLink, a national Internet service provider, described Getty as having a “serious form of cancer” and said the disease “will require him to take an undetermined leave of absence from the company.”

Mike Lunsford, executive vice president of voice and access for EarthLink, will replace Betty on an interim basis. The company’s board named Lunsford to the post.

Continues here.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published November 15, 2006

In what some might consider odd, competing businesses have been in attendance at the city's purchasing staff meetings as the group prepares to choose a vendor for Wi-Fi.

The competing bidders have shown up battling to build, run - and pay for - a citywide wireless Internet network.

For the second time in two weeks, EarthLink Inc. is reporting it has helped bust up a Internet spam ring.

EarthLink's investigation into the source of millions of phisher site spam e-mails has helped law enforcement break up an alleged identity theft ring. A federal grand jury in New Haven, Connecticut, returned an indictment on September 20th charging six individuals with identity theft, conspiracy and fraud in connection with e-mail and access devices.

EarthLink Inc. on Wednesday said a U.S.

By Marguerite Reardon, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: September 11, 2006, 9:16 AM PT

EarthLink will announce Tuesday that it is expanding its line-powered Internet-based phone service to eight more cities throughout the United States.

Beginning this month, customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Diego and Washington, D.C., will be able sign up for Home Phone Service, EarthLink's voice over Internet Protocol phone service.

The service is competing in an already crowded market where cable operators, standalone VoIP providers such as Vonage and Skype, and Internet companies such as AOL, Yahoo and Google are all trying to get a piece of the telephony market.

Contintues @ ZDNet

By Gregg Keizer
TechWeb

Aug 23, 2006 02:13 PM

Atlanta-based Internet provider EarthLink on Tuesday added an anonymous e-mail service as another way for its subscribers to steer clear of spam.

The new ProtectionPack, available only to EarthLink members, features Anonymous Email, which gives users five new anonymous addresses that are linked behind the scenes to the customers actual account.

Subscribers can then use those five anonymous e-mail accounts to register at Web sites, for online shopping, and for sending and receiving mail without exposing their identities. To keep mail delivered to the anonymous accounts separate from the personal address, messages are automatically shunted to ProtectionPack folders in the user's Web mail account.

Continues @ Information Week