@Home cable fallout: slow connections; email access tip; Switch complete for AT&T

During the last several days we have heard from several users who are not very happy with their cable modem performance in the aftermath of the @Home changes. Some users remain without service, with no clear timetable for restoring a connection. Here is a sample:

Charter cable is slower Linda Cameron writes: "I was disconnected briefly at the end of November from Excite@home, but by Monday I was online again, still powered by the @Home network. Yesterday, I was disconnected again and by 7:30pm, I was back on, but now I am powered by Charter Communications. So far, I am getting a lot less speed than I had before. I realize the speed can fluctuate as the traffic does, but this is between 6-7 am when I normally am flying online. It is very sluggish --sometimes under 300 kbps according a bandwidth test Web page. It really hasn't felt speedy since I was switched to Charter."

Update: Jennifer Scott explains: "Charter network is speed capped. You pay by service level. Bronze level tops out at 30K/sec or so, Silver I'd say 50-70, and Gold gets about 160K/sec."

Hardware problem with AT&T? Mardis Coers writes: "With the changeover from Excite@Home to AT Broadband, I had a dramatic reduction in my connection speed (less that ISDN as measured at one test site). After talking to the AT&T technical assistance rep (more than one hour on hold to finally get through), he said that they were having problems with the RCA Cable modems. No estimate as to when this would be fixed."

Another group of users are petitioning AT&T A reader writes: "A number of us over at dslreports.com have gotten together and started a petition to ask AT&T to give us back the quality of service/download speeds we once had with the @Home network. With this switchover, AT&T has cut our speeds by at least 1/2 (they cut mine down to 1/3 of what it used to be) and they are still charging us the same monthly fee as before the transition."

Accessing @Home email via the Web Mike Kincaid writes: "Users may be able to log on to their @Home email accounts from mail2web.com. It does not require the user to configure Web access beforehand." We have been unable to confirm this ourselves.

AT&T says broadband shift complete From MSNBC/WSJ: "AT&T Corp.'s broadband unit said Friday it has completed the move of 850,000 former Excite At Home users to its new high-speed Internet network, less than one week after Excite cut off high-speed Internet service to the telecommunications giant." More.

Update: B. J. Simpson writes: "There is a group of some 5500 subscribers in the State College, PA area that beg to differ. We have been without internet service since December 1, and no one at AT&T can tell us when our service will be restored." We have other reports of continued outages as well.