DIRECTV Broadband Shuts Down

Phroggy writes "Effective today (Friday the 13th), DIRECTV Broadband is officially out of business. The company will remain partially operational for the next 60 to 90 days, and we will work to transition our roughly 160,000 customers to another provider. Details are still sketchy. So, anybody gonna be hiring in the Portland area in a couple months?" There's a press release about the shutdown.

Broadband shut down?

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess it's "last post" for them!

Well...

[craenor]

For those of us who do tech support and sometimes run into DirecTV broadband issues, can I just say, yippee!

Re:How sudden?

[teamhasnoi]

I saw them *last night* while watching 'Taken'. Perhaps that's what's happened!

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Noooooo!

[Anonymous Coward]

I am saddened deeply by this. I am just a poor Afghanistanian boy, with a C64 to access the internet. In order to speed up my computer, I got DSL through Hughes, and now my C64 plays movies and games like "Max Payne" and "Kill Saddam!". But now all that will be gone. I will be back to my C64 with Q-Bert, if I still have the 15.25 Metre disk (Our technology is so old). I wish I was a real boy. I thought DSL was going to turn my wodden legs into real legs, and I actually was feeling a bit of a difference, but now it's gone. Damn you rotten afghan economy! You made them shut down, you bastards!

Oh well, it has been fun. My warmest regards to Mr. Katz, and to you all. I don't think I will be back as my 300 baud modem will not be fast enough. I wish I would have made a slashdot account when I could, but I am just a poor boy and cannot afford it.

Good bye all.

Re:Well...

[Froze]

You work for them right? The Telocity modem/fake routers that we haev to use.. can you hitn me how to mod it so I cna use the routing capabilities? I am goign to assuem they will let me keep it. what is yoru input on this?

My take on this post is that you need to cut back on caffiene ;-) Either that or teach you left hand to keep up with your right hand.

Re:Their Modem/fake router

[stratjakt]

Once I rented about 6 SNES games and a bunch of shlockey horror movies for a weekend beer drinking/game playing/movie watching bender with a couple friends.

Lo and behold, there was a big "out of business" sign on the video store when I went back.

I kept the games and movies!

Thank you Blockbuster, for driving the little mom and pop stores into the dust and letting me pocket a few choice games!!!

from the ashes

[m_chan]

I guess it may be their last post, but this operation has always been kind of a "phoenix", rising from the ashes. (Or perhaps soiling themselves with said same.)

Here's why:
DirecTV DSL, a subsidiary of Hughes, which is in turn owned by General Motors, was formerly known as Telocity until Hughes purchased them [eprairie.com] in July 2001.

In my part of the country, the switch to the corporate entity Telocity occurred at about the same time as Northpoint bankruptcy forced a CLEC switch from Northpoint to Covad for some customers of Megapath. In October 2000, Megapath had purchased the assets and customer base of an ISP. Megapath kept the business customers of that ISP and spun off [internet.com] their residential customers to Chicago-based Telocity.

And the name of that ISP? Formerly-St. Louis-based Phoenix Networks, founded by a guy named Peter Roberts, who evolved a one-man network integration business into a rapid-growth internet service. Of course that Phoenix should not to be confused with Phoenix [phoenix.com] the BIOS that has the legal team that is making Phoenix [mozilla.org] the superlative web browser change it's name, none of which is happening in Phoenix [phoenix.gov].

Dizzy yet? I know I am. Hope I got at least the broad strokes right. Anyway, I'm glad I got off that Merry-Go-Round during what seemed to be a weekend-stay at MegaPath, though I supported a few friends throught the multiple changes that followed. Maybe the ride finally is coming to a stop.

Re:Portland Jobs.

[Lucas Membrane]

Try U-Haul, Ryder, or whoever rents out those trailers. One of my friends decided to move out of town and found that there was a shortage of trailers for rent, as they have all been rented 1-way outbound. You might get a job retrieving them or building more.

A message to ex employees of DirectvDSL

[JVert]

To abuse department: HA! I told you that you were ruining the company! Shut my connection down for a month because I had a virus for a few days (which I fixed before I was disconnected) See what happens? Put this on your shoulder and walk home!

To everyone else: My condolences, but I warned you that abuse department was trouble...

I've waited almost a year for revenge.
But seriously, anyone else know of anyone this cheap with static IP?

Re:I would start a class action lawsuit

[The Kow]

Did you get them to sign a 1-year contract with you?

Re:Why Portland?

[TC (WC)]

Wow... They put all the people in a room and sent the phones home? :(

Glad I don't work for them.

Warning!

[FakePlasticDubya]

New TV Spot from DirectTV DSL:

"Warning! You really have reached the end of the internet. With us at least."