Customers Experiencing Problems with New Backbone at AT&T Broadband
CNET News.com reports that customers of AT&T Broadband report wide-ranging problems with the new backbone that AT&T is activating to replace the @Home Network. Although AT&T reports that it has migrated 850,000 customers to the new network, users are reporting apparently throttled downstream connections, intermittent service outages, limited access to peer networks, and complete lack of service.
This is no surprise, given the fact that a partially constructed backbone was rushed into service. The chaos that has followed AT&T Broadband's break with Excite@Home is certainly bad PR for AT&T. Their willingness to allow such a prolonged network disruption gives the impression that they take their residential customers for granted. The less than flawless restoration gives their customers little to smile about.