Charter signs service deal with @Home

Charter Communications officials said today 14,000 of its cable modem customers in the Pacific Northwest will remain on the Excite@Home network while the cable operator works out backbone agreements for its Charter Pipeline network.

Charter, with 145,000 former @Home customers, canceled its service contract with @Home last week after the broadband provider threatened to shut off service. While Charter transitioned the majority of those subscribers to Pipeline without interruption of service, the northwestern markets are not fully integrated into the network, a spokesman for Charter said today.

The agreement with @Home will keep those 14,000 connections live until Feb. 28, when @Home folds. The agreement also includes an e-mail forwarding provision that allows former Charter@Home customers to access their old email accounts during the transition.

The Charter spokesman said the majority of the 14,000 customers will be transferred to Pipeline in the next month, but a small percentage of them won’t make the transition until near the end of the contract period.

--Kevin Fitchard, staff writer