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 MikePremium,Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA
W.O.W.
FairPoint
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Verizon Wireless
| I just received a letter from the NP VP of Sales "NorthPoint Communications Update: Customer Transitions
On November 29, 2000 Verizon Communications terminated a binding merger agreement with NorthPoint Communications. The termination of the merger by Verizon, only a month before NorthPoint was to receive several hundred million dollars in additional financing, was a devastating and untimely blow. NorthPoint filed for chapter 11 protection on January 16, 2001, and contemporaneously secured interim funding pending the restructuring and sale of the company.
During the first three weeks of March, 2001, as NorthPoint convened with potential bidders for a final auction, we and our bankers fully expected that the ultimate, successful bid would result in the purchase of all of the company's assets (including the customers, network, and hard assets) so as to permit the company to continue as a going concern, and continue serving ISPs and their customers with high-quality DSL service.
Unfortunately, in the final stages of the auction, March 21-22, none of the "going concern" bidders appeared, and hastily, we realized that the company would have to be liquidated and operations ceased. Liquidation would result in the dismantling and sale of all assets including our network, as well as the termination of all employees, and DSL services to our ISP's and end users.
Into this asset liquidation stepped AT&T whose bid, the best NorthPoint received, was for the purchase of most of the company's assets including collocation arrangements, Operations Support Systems, and related assets.
The Bankruptcy Court confirmed the asset sale at a hearing on the afternoon of March 22, 2001 and NorthPoint immediately notified the public and its customers that a "cessation of services to our customers and the compete shut down of our network [was] imminent."
Ultimately, the quick and brutal collapse of our prospects has left our customers having to move their DSL services, and during transition, to resort to dialup access. Many of NorthPoint's customers have contacted us for help in managing their transition to new DSL providers. In response, we have assembled the following information from external resources and vendors prepared to provide alternative services to NorthPoint DSL users.
Finding Information on Alternative DSL Service Providers
First and foremost, Customers looking to restore their services with alternative DSL providers need to directly contact the customer care department of their existing ISP to aid in this transition. Your existing ISP is in the best position to help with this transition.
To further aid in this process, below is a list of useful online resources:
C|NET Web Services: (webservices.cnet.com/html/aisles/DSL.asp)
DSLMarketplace.Com: (www.dslmarketplace.com)
DSLReports.Com: (www.dslreports.com)
2Wire.Com: (www.2wire.com/dsllookup/finddsl.asp)
For customers who cannot reach their existing ISP, here is a list of service providers who have volunteered their assistance to provide new broadband services and special promotions to NorthPoint customers. This list is not meant to be comprehensive and NorthPoint is not endorsing any of these providers. This list will be updated daily on our web site.
· Aevia www.aevia.com 925-906-9067
· Allegiance Telecom www.algx.com 415-477-4620
· CAL IT www.calit.com 877-550-4252
· Comcast Business Communications www.comcastbusiness.com 888-205-5000
· Connective Communications www.checkDSL.net 302-224-6576
· Digi-Tel Communications 703-926-4367
· Echelon Telecom www.eschelon.com 206-805-8228
· Genuity www.genuity.com/enterpriseaccess 1-800-GENUITY
· Intellicom www.intellicom.net 888-929-8728
· Ionex Telecommunications www.ionex.com 877-394-0544
· New Millennium Computers 888-281-4939
· PacificNet Technologies www.pacificnet.net 800-472-2638 ext. 9890
Allan Jaffe
Vice President | Sales
NorthPoint Communications
www.northpoint.net "
At least DSLR got a cameo! 
--
-M
"Official Tweaker of the New Millennium"
irc://irc.dal.net/#dslreports | |
| Why is this man still drawing a check? There would seem to be no need for 'sales' anymore. They done sold everything!
NP released the employees who may have been of assistance in facilitating our(hopeful) transfer to new digs, but kept a VP of sales?! What is he selling, I wonder? ATT DSL perhaps?
Sorry, I'm venting today. | |
 lml2000Whazzup
join:2000-08-17
Los Angeles, CA | reply to Mike
Re: I just received a letter from the NP VP of Sales Thanks for posting. Clear language describing what happened. The question to ask is how realistic was the expectation of Northpoint and its bankers of finding a bidder who was one who wish to keep NP as a going concern?
Was their expectation realistic, or were they just kidding themselves? Bankers today are just a bunch of young kids with big egos who think they know it all, an in reality don't much of squat. I know, I use to be one of them.
But I bet that most of these guys never went through a bankruptcy proceeding before, because the last time these courts were filled with corporate restructurings they were likely hanging out in the dorm or library cramming for their mid-terms as undergraduates.
Let's face it, given the present turmoil in the market place and the tremendous downturn in the telecom business today, how realistic was the expectation that NP would be saved? I don't think there expectation was reasonable.
At somepoint, the mature, informed involved in this process will come around and admit it. In any auction, one must assess the market for the assets. Today the market for these assets sucks. AT&Ts interests in the assets was unique because of its dying LD business that is in need of a quick fix of local carrier business. There cable strategy has failed them. By acquiring NP's FR network and their leased cages at the CO, you can be sure T is gonna rip out those DSLAMs and install Class 5 switches, and begin to sell in a big way local phone business combined with their LD business that is going to have the RBOC running to their State PUCs asking for access to LD. I know this will certainly be the case in California.
So, all in all, notwithstanding the stupidity of NP's management and its ignorant bankers, they should have seen T comin', and should have figured T's angle . . . if they were smart. Regardless, as I see it, T's move will foster more intense competition along the loop, because now the RBOCs will have a worthy competitor operating out of its cages, where before it did not.
All of the CLECs are a joke in some way. NP is gone; Rhythms is on it last leg; Covad is about to be consumed by SBC. These companies were never formidable competitors because they had risky business models, with operations that generated only losses, not profits. Perhaps T will create the competition that the 1996 Act intended.
We shall see. All I know is that I am no longer on NP IDSL; I am now going back to PacBell ISDN, and will likely have no choice to select PacBell has my ADSL carrier when ADSL service is provisioned here in about 2 months. So much for consumer choice along the last mile | |
 ARPremium,ExMod 2001-04
join:2000-09-21
Toronto, ON | So you finally made your choice. Welcome to the PacBell family! | | |
|
lml2000Whazzup
join:2000-08-17
Los Angeles, CA | Yes, araina. I forgot to make a follow-up post to the Pronto thread regarding the provisioning of DSL out of the RT. Here's what I learned from my own due diligence. No thank to Speakeasy as I had to force them to obtain this information and deliver it. Here goes:
Covad will only be provisioning SDSL out of the RTs; it will not be provisioning ADSL at all. Hence, the basis upon which I decided to place an order with Speakeasy was the false information provided me by the Speakeasy sales rep, unintentionally, I may add. I specifically explained why I wanted IDSL from Speakeasy -- to migrate over to RADSL when available. Well, I found out yesterday that there's not gonna be any Covad ADSL DSLAMs in the RTs. I wasn't about to lock myself into a 12-mo. contract with Speakeasy for 144/144 IDSL service when Pronto should be at my doorstep in two months (I hope). Moreover I'm not about to pay Speakeasy $90 monthly for a 384/384 connection, nor $160 monthly for 768/768 connection. ISDN sucks, but its month-to-month, and I already own a modem. Moreover, while on the phone yesterday with my Pronto contact, I learned that on the PacBell computerized map, their database indicates a notation that my address is "ISDN ready," which means the normal 15 business day time to provisioning could be shortened to a matter of a few business days.
Presently, my goal is to attempt to steer PacBell ISDN to my recently deceased IDSL pair rather than my year ago deceased ISDN pair. Both are ISDN ready. We shall see. More importantly, I am on a full court press to push my RT through to DSL provisioning. Yesterday I was on the phone with the LADWP account rep for PacBell. The goal . . .to get the plans for power provisioning finished and cost estimated so PacBell can cut a check for the work and get power. The next step is getting the OCD turned up, which is more difficult task, but it sounds as if its gonna happen in BVHLCA01 real soon. My guess is Pronto by June. But then again, I was guessing Pronto by January back in October.
Pronto is like "tomorrow." Its always a day away. | |
Anon | How does one find out the Pronto schedule? One year after I called PacBell
and found out I was too far away, they called back to say I was now within
reach. I asked if that meant they had a neighbourhood gateway installed and
I got a fuzzy yes.
Last week (after the Northpoint demise) I got another PacBell call (from
St. Louis no less - a marketing firm there) offering it again. On my pushback
this time I asked what my "new" distance was and they said 15K feet. Well,
that was the "old" value for as-the-crow-flies distance, meaning, probably,
no gateway.
I'd sure like to know what their schedule really is, and where the gateways
will be!
btw, when I moved here 6/98, the cable company said I could have a Internet
over cable by 9/98. Well, I'm still waiting and no sign of it coming. Just one
lie after another. Just add 3 months to the time you call ...
--
Far from home
da Newf | |
lml2000Whazzup
join:2000-08-17
Los Angeles, CA | I feel your pain. Cable story here the same. Promised in '98; now saying end of '01. My bet is NO, and when it gets here, it gonna suck because I live in the hills, and the coax plant is in dire need of an upgrade, which the MSO appears disinclined to do. | |
 GarageJoeU2 Rocks
join:2001-03-21
Scottsdale, AZ | Maybe I should work for PacBell another company that lies about its future and Customer Service, seems like the past I had in past teleco's. LOL
--
Matthew
Ex-Northpoint, Qwest, Covad OSP Network Technician | |
| reply to Anon
How does one find out the Pronto schedule?
Good question. For reasons known only to themselves: SBC publish Pronto schedules only for the Ameritech territories.
The RT near me (approx. 8,000 feet away, I believe) is noted as being "up." And Ameritech now offers "business" ADSL. I'd rather keep my 144k IDSL with MegaPath/Rhythms. But at least I'll have somewhere to go if the wheels really fall off--as some predict they will. My only choice before that RT was Comcast@Home. Yech.
--
Jim Seymour & Karel the Computer Cat
Agents Provocateurs Extraordinaire
irc://irc.dal.net/#dslreports | |
| reply to Mike
Re: I just received a letter from the NP VP of Sal quote:
Allan Jaffe
Vice President | Sales
NorthPoint Communications
www.northpoint.net
Al Jaffe? Didn't he draw cartoons for Mad Magazine?  | |
GarageJoeU2 Rocks
join:2001-03-21
Scottsdale, AZ | reply to jseymour8
Re: I just received a letter from the NP VP of Sales But remember Jim and anyone else interested in the pronto schedule that it isnt a requirement for them to stick to. This is merely a "heads up" as it were. An idea of likely installation dates. Nothing more. So dont put to much stock in the dates.
--
Matthew
Ex-Northpoint, Qwest, Covad OSP Network Technician | |
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