ZDNet has nicely cleared up my confusion over who was responsible for what in the world of cable modem service. Their analysis of Excite@Home’s fatal blunder reveals that although @Home spent millions of dollars and a few years building up their network, their former customers (AT&T; most notably) will be able to replicate their network in a short amount of time and with much less capital. Excite@Home provided a small part of the cable modem’s physical network (as far as the network “route” was concerned) along with their ISP duties of email and user web hosting. For AT&T;, a switchover to their own systems was easier than Excite@Home may have anticipated. Some say AT&T; called their bluff and came out ahead, although AT&T; spokespeople still say they would have rather spent $307 million to acquire Excite@Home’s assets. That would have allowed them to gain future profits from Excite@Home’s other customers.