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To: Ahda who wrote (3768)	12/3/2001 9:12:12 PM
From: Keith Monahan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24758

DJ Cox, Comcast To Pay ExciteAtHome $320M In Access Deal 12/03/2001 Dow Jones News Services (Copyright © 2001 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)--Bankrupt ExciteAtHome (ATHMQ) will get $320 million from its two biggest remaining cable customers over the next three months in exchange for keeping its high-speed Internet access on, the companies said late Monday. Cox Communications Inc. (COX) and Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) said their separate $160 million deals ensure uninterrupted access for their customers while the companies develop their own networks for cable Internet service. ExciteAtHome provides fast Web access for 570,000 Cox accounts and most of Comcast's 792,000 Internet subscribers. The payments, which must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge, will be in lieu of the monthly subscriber fees that cable companies pay to ExciteAtHome for its service. The total is more than the $307 million AT&T Corp. (T) has offered for ExciteAtHome's network, an offer that appears close to being withdrawn. Comcast said its arrangement was reached along with "a group of other broadband providers." Spokesman Tim Fitzpatrick would not elaborate. An ExciteAtHome spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment. The deal came out of negotiations that began last week before a federal bankruptcy judge let ExciteAtHome cancel what he called "clearly burdensome" contracts with cable companies. ExciteAtHome said the deals were costing the company up to $6 million per week. ExciteAtHome kept its service on for most of its 3.7 million subscribers in North America, but it severed connections for more than 850,000 AT&T Broadband (X.ATB) customers after the two companies failed to reach an agreement. By Monday, AT&T said it had moved about 330,000 of those subscribers, mainly in Oregon, Washington and the Dallas area, to its own network and restored their Internet access. Next in line were more than 300,000 customers in Illinois and the San Francisco Bay area. Customers in Denver and Salt Lake City were due to be plugged into AT&T's new network Wednesday; people in Hartford, Conn., Pittsburgh, Sacramento and Rocky Mountain cities on Thursday; Michigan on Friday. AT&T asked customers to remain patient, saying its employees were "working literally around the clock." AT&T said customers will get two free days of Internet access for every day they were down. Although service to other cable companies that sell Internet access through ExciteAtHome's network were not cut off, the companies decided they needed more time to develop their own systems. "Establishing our own network will give us more control over the quality and reliability of service, the ability to add new features, and allow us to be more responsive," said Pat Esser, executive vice president of Atlanta-based Cox. Similarly, St. Louis-based Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) had been using ExciteAtHome to provide cable Internet access to 145,000 subscribers, but in hopes of assuring stability in the service, it is moving 90% of them onto a Charter-run network. The remaining 14,000 Charter customers on the ExciteAtHome service are in the Pacific Northwest. Charter was continuing to negotiate with ExciteAtHome on Monday, Charter spokeswoman Deb Seidel said. Redwood City-based ExciteAtHome has sought higher payments from cable companies that connect to its network, and its bondholders had hoped to prove the network is worth substantially more than the $307 million AT&T has offered for it. AT&T, which owns 23% of ExciteAtHome, surrendered its majority representation on the company's board in October, hoping to avoid criticism it had engineered the company's bankruptcy so it could buy the cable access network at a steep discount. The latest developments appeared to make it unlikely that AT&T would maintain its bid for the network. But an AT&T Broadband spokeswoman declined to comment.