I am the broadband Bermuda Triangle

Internet service providers beware: I have powers to invoke bankruptcy beyond the ken of mortal man.

By Mike Masnick

Dec. 6, 2001 | I am the broadband Bermuda Triangle. Offer me a broadband connection, and your company is doomed to fail. If I even ask about your broadband service, start reading up on how to file for bankruptcy protection. Originally, I did not believe it was my fault, but after getting kicked off five different systems in the past 10 months, there is only one obvious factor in common: me.

The U.S. government says it is working on ways to stimulate broadband growth. I have a solution: kick me out of the country. With that one, simple move, broadband will again be free to thrive and grow and help boost the rest of the sagging tech sector.

A year ago, broadband was still considered the "next big thing." I decided it was time to join the 21st century, and thus began Hurricane Mike's path of broadband destruction.

It began, simply enough, last December when I signed up for Northpoint DSL through Megapath, a popular broadband ISP. Northpoint, of course, was one of the "big three" wholesalers of DSL service (along with Rhythms and Covad).

Once my connection was up and running, it only took two weeks for Northpoint to declare bankruptcy.

This brings up my second evil power: I turn employees at broadband ISPs into liars. I spoke with a vice president at Megapath the day after Northpoint declared bankruptcy, asking what it all meant. He explained that there was "zero" chance I would lose my broadband connection since they knew this was coming and they had "contingency" plans in place and ready to go.

It turns out that contingency plans mean many different things to many different people.

For Megapath, contingency plans apparently meant waiting until Northpoint shut down their network completely before preparing for alternatives. The end result was nearly two months without broadband access, while I waited for Megapath to set me up with Bachelor No. 2 in the DSL dating game: RhythmsNet Connections.

A few days before RhythmsNet turned on my new account, I started reading reports of financial difficulties at Rhythms. I called Megapath again, where I was told (repeatedly!) that Rhythms was a "solid" company -- especially now that it had taken on so much of Northpoint's lost business. I told the guy about my experience with Northpoint going out of business, and he said, "Yeah, that was a surprise because they were a really solid company." Like "contingency," apparently "solid" means very different things to different people. It was at this point that I knew Rhythms was doomed and cancelled the service soon afterwards (just slightly before they declared bankruptcy and shut down their network).

Next page: My path of destruction could not be stopped. Just ask Excite@Home