From Ziff-Davis newswire. Another one bites the dust?
Comments?
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This article is from ZDNN (http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/).
Visit this page on the Web at:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/zdnn_smgraph_display/0,3441,2127660,00.html
This is really inet-access material and it has been hashed out there since
early this afternoon.
I had heard this through several sources and on a couple of lists today as
well.
Sorry to be feasting on dead bodies, but keeping people online is more
important than netiquette right now.
Anyone in Chicago who has found themselves suddenly looking at disconnection
is welcome to call us; we have capacity (ie: hardware) available right now
and may be able to get circuits rehomed quickly as well (if you're using TCG
or MFS for the facilities) as we have fiber from both in our engineering
room.
I had heard this through several sources and on a couple of lists today as
well.
You'd be surprised how many people I heard it from. 
Unfortunately, the rumor is correct, Priori is in bad shape and will likely
not continue as a viable business. 
The article was ... not entirely
correct, but close enough not to quibble. We have not filed for
bankruptcy, but the chances are high enough that I'm not willing to risk my
downstream's continued existence on ours.
I'd like to add some facts to stop the rampant rumors:
* Priori has not filed for bankruptcy, but likely will Friday or Monday
barring a miracle.
* I turned off our web page.
* The backbone is running and has a high likelihood of continuing to run
until at least 3 PM PDT, Friday, 8/14, 1998. After that, I do not know.
* The employees are all laid off. (I'm technically unemployed - so I can't
be speaking for "the company"! 
* All customers have been notified.
Sorry to be feasting on dead bodies, but keeping people online is more
important than netiquette right now.
I COMPLETELY agree, and I am currently working for free to get our
customers moved. I do appreciate any offers of assistance to get my
friends and customers "on net" ASAP. I currently have problems in the
Denver, Dallas and Boston markets. I believe I have secured at least
temporary transit for all customers in all other cities. There isn't a
whole lot of bandwidth necessary, but getting a loop in days is, as we all
know, nearly impossible. If someone in our collocation facilities could
keep them up, even sub-optimally, even temporarily, I would greatly
appreciate it and donate my engineering time to do whatever was necessary
to get it done.
Here are my POP locations:
Boston
10 Second Avenue
Waltham, MA 02154
781-672
Two DS1s
Dallas
The "Infomart"
1950 Stemmons Freeway
Dallas, TX 75207
214-760
One DS1
Denver
8765 West Orchard Drive
Englewood, CO 90017
303-221
One 6 Mbps fractional DS3
All are MFS owned POPs facilities.
Even if you are not in those locations, but close or think you can rig
something for the customers, I'd love to hear from you. Please call the
NOC line 888-477-7662 and ask for Patrick. Thank you.
Karl Denninger (karl@MCS.Net)| MCSNet - Serving Chicagoland and Wisconsin
TTFN,
patrick
Patrick:
We can Help in Dallas in the Infomart, I will give the NOC a call.
Jeff Smith
President
Verio Texas
Thank you all for the tremendous response. With your help I have gotten
all of my customers moved so that not one Priori customer should suffer any
significant downtime. (Just long enough to move the line.) I do
appreciate everyone's offer of help. Kinda restores my faith in the industry.
I would like to single out Above.Net, specifically Dave Rand and Steve
Rubin. Above.Net is helping our customers in ways I would not expect any
profit-minded company to do. They are bending over backwards to help
people who will probably never pay them a dime, and doing it quickly and
cheerfully. These are really good guys and I think they deserve a lot of
credit for helping me and my downstreams out of a VERY tight spot. Thanx
guys.
Of course, there are lots of other upstreams who are making extraordinary
efforts to keep one or more of my downstreams on Net in the near future.
Please do not think that I do not appreciate it. Thank you all.
TTFN,
patrick
Bravo, Patrick. _This_ is how a _man_ dies, to paraphrase Bob
Heinlein.This is a perfect counter-example to what I was bitching about with the
BBN fracas. Serve the customers, _then_ worry about the money.
Thank you. Thank you very much. (And my favorite author, too. I
honestly expected to get flamed for that post (a bunch of "I told you
so's"), but instead I got an overwhelming number of responses offering to
help. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. (Even if all of you
wouldn't let me get any sleep.
I am absolutely positive some of the help was offered because the vultures
were circling, but some of them were honest offers of help. I think this
shows that there is hope for the Internet community yet.
In response to the money issue, it is easy for me, as a
geek/engineer/operations guy to service the customer and ignore the cost,
but I have learned the hard way that money _has_ to be made. I honestly
believed (and still do) that if you service the customer right, and charge
a fair price, the money will come. The problem is, there's a huge hump you
have to get over in a startup, and servicing the customer well makes that
hump bigger. Priori just couldn't make it over that hump.
Thanx again for helping my customers. They really didn't deserve this.
The efforts of people on this list and others probably kept some of them
going "down with the ship". If any of you ever need any help with your
routes, you got some free engineering coming.
Jay R. Ashworth
TTFN,
patrick
know, nearly impossible. If someone in our collocation facilities could
keep them up, even sub-optimally, even temporarily, I would greatly
appreciate it and donate my engineering time to do whatever was necessary
to get it done.Bravo, Patrick. _This_ is how a _man_ dies, to paraphrase Bob
Heinlein.
Agreed! (Excellent quotation use, BTW).
This is a perfect counter-example to what I was bitching about with the
BBN fracas. Serve the customers, _then_ worry about the money.
What's horribly sad is that the lesson must be learned over and over: If
you serve the customers, you don't *have* to worry about the money.
Wabbit season!..duck season!..wabbit season!..duck season!..SPAMMER SEASON!
Dean Robb
PC-EASY computer services
(757) 495-EASY [3279]
This is a perfect counter-example to what I was bitching about with the
BBN fracas. Serve the customers, _then_ worry about the money.What's horribly sad is that the lesson must be learned over and over: If
you serve the customers, you don't *have* to worry about the money.
Not to say that one should not service the customer - just the opposite -
but I believe the case in point disproves this assertion.
Don't get me wrong, I am definitely a "customer oriented" kinda guy, but
you still have to worry about the cash flow or you end up making pleas to
people on NANOG to help your customers before you die.
Dean Robb
TTFN,
patrick
I guess I wasn't clear enough...that was intended to be generalization of
an good business model. Clearly, you have to be concerned with
cashflow...as a small businessman, I understand this all too well...but the
bottom line should not come before reasonable customer service. If you
take good care of the customer, the bottom line will come. In your case,
it seems that it just wasn't coming fast enough...and the speed of the
Internet growth causes incredible infrastructure expenses that couldn't be
offset by the slow but steady growth of the customer base.
I'm very sorry that the fiscal situation has forced you into dire straits.
In this unique world, traditional business models must be modified. In
almost any other industry, you would have succeeded.
Let me say again...the comment was not intended for the exact situation
faced by Priori...it was intended to mean that if you take care of the
customers, the business will come. Sadly, sometimes it doesn't come fast
enough.
Wabbit season!..duck season!..wabbit season!..duck season!..SPAMMER SEASON!
Dean Robb
PC-EASY computer services
(757) 495-EASY [3279]