‘At Home’ Internet service rollout delayed

Tuesday, March 7, 2000 | 10:57 a.m.

The rollout of Cox At Home, a high-speed Internet service using the Excite search engine as a launching point, has been delayed indefinitely by Cox Communications.

Company officials are continuing to offer Cox Express, a nearly identical high-speed Internet service that allows customers access to the Internet from a site of their own choosing.

"The main difference is content," said Steve Schorr, a Cox spokesman in Las Vegas. "With Cox At Home, customers would have access to the Internet from the Excite At Home site with all its content. With Cox Express, customers have have access from whatever site they choose. There's no difference in the speed of the connection."

That speed is about 1.5 megabits per second, more than 12 times faster than a 56K modem.

Schorr said the rollout was delayed because of system reliability problems related to the compatibility of the Excite and Cox systems discovered in beta testing. About 200 customers have been testing the system for Cox.

"We wanted the system to be completely reliable before offering it to the public," Schorr said.

Schorr said the company did not have a target date for starting up Cox At Home and doesn't have a date planned for the system to be offered.