Excite@Home resumes provisioning

Excite@Home has agreed to resume provisioning new customers for most of its cable partners, ending a 10-day standoff that threatened the growth of the cable broadband industry.

The North America’s largest broadband ISP, Excite@Home halted all new orders for new service last week as it buckled down for bankruptcy proceedings. Today, AT&T Broadband, Cox Communications, Comcast and Canada’s Rogers Cable all announced agreements with @Home for continued provisioning services.

While neither @Home nor the individual MSOs would reveal details of the agreements, an @Home spokeswoman said the company resolved “outstanding financial issues” with its cable partners. She added that @Home would resume provisioning new service as quickly as possible.

An AT&T Broadband spokesman said AT&T would begin making appointments for new service the first week of November and only had a seven- to 10-day backlog to address. Other MSOs said they would also clear their backlogs as quickly as possible.

Any long lull in provisioning could have had catastrophic effects for the cable broadband industry, as three of the largest carriers would have ceased new orders during what is traditional the highest growth season of the year. While most MSOs have been working on alternative plans with @Home’s future in question, analysts said none could have instituted those plans overnight.