EarthLink
Encyclopedia
EarthLink is an Internet service provider
(ISP) headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia
, USA
. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.
EarthLink provides a variety of Internet connection types, including dial-up, DSL, satellite
, and cable
. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available nationwide. In addition to Internet access, EarthLink offers Web hosting, e-commerce services for individuals, small and medium-sized businesses. EarthLink also offers different types of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services.
In addition to selling the company's various Internet connections online and by phone, EarthLink operates retail kiosks in some Fry's Electronics
stores, staffed by two to five representatives directly employed by EarthLink, rather than Fry's.
at age 23. Dayton reportedly spent an entire week trying to configure his own computer for Internet access. He realized there was an opportunity to create a simple, user friendly ISP.
From a modest beginning of ten modem
s, the company has grown to include more than 2,000 POP
numbers in the U.S., and more than 40,000 internationally.
On February 4, 2000, the company, then based in Pasadena, California
, merged with Atlanta-founded MindSpring
, making it the second-largest ISP in the U.S., after AOL
.
On December 7, 2001 Earthlink acquired OmniSky, a wireless provider.
On June 10, 2002, EarthLink acquired PeoplePC
, a value-priced dial-up service that has more dial-up access numbers than any other ISP (including AOL). PeoplePC's direct competitors are NetZero
and Netscape
.
In July 2005, EarthLink announced that it was closing the last of its in-house American call centers, though the company still has American call centers via out-source telecom companies.
EarthLink cut 2,600 jobs in 2003 and 2004 Although EarthLink has reduced its expenses from $283,357,000 in 2003 to $227,285,000 in 2005, their earnings are shrinking. In 2003, EarthLink reported revenues of $1,401,930,000, but by 2005, they were only $1,290,072,000.
In October 2006, EarthLink reported its first quarterly loss in more than 2½ years. Revenue from dial-up customers dropped 16.8 percent as the company lost 320,001 of those customers from the previous year. The company predicted another loss in the fourth quarter of 2006 of $15–$25 million due to investment in Helio.
In response to budgetary concerns, EarthLink began a major restructuring in late Summer 2007 which involved laying off half its employees and withdrawing from several product lines.
EarthLink returned to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2007, posting free cash flow of $59 million and $71 million of EBITDA
for the quarter.
EarthLink acquired STS Telecom on 2nd March 2011. It announced that it will integrate STS Telecom into its newly established "EarthLink Business" division.
, San Francisco
, Anaheim
and nine other cities to deploy public Wi-Fi
networks. It teamed up with Google in an effort to bring such a network to San Francisco. EarthLink saw citywide Wi-Fi as a way to compensate for the ongoing loss of dialup customers, and hoped to use its strong brand identity and established customer base to gain an edge in the market.
EarthLink's municipal wireless efforts began to dissolve in late August 2007 when the financially ailing company said it was no longer willing to solely fund construction of city-wide wireless networks in San Francisco and 11 other cities. The plan to build free wireless in San Francisco was formally scrapped by the city on September 12, 2007. A project in Chicago had stopped cold, and Houston
has fined EarthLink for falling behind deadlines. On May 13, 2008, EarthLink announced it was ending its free WiFi program in Philadelphia.
's Ponzi scheme
made headlines, EarthLink released a statement:
to jointly own and operate a new MVNO in the U.S. wireless marketplace. The name of this new company is Helio. The network was expected to commence operations sometime in spring 2006. Helio's business model revolves around providing advanced wireless devices not commonly seen for sale in the US market to technology-savvy consumers. The company's flagship device is the Helio Ocean
. On June 27, 2008, they agreed to sell their stake in the company to Virgin Mobile
.
. On August 22, 2005 EarthLink, Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Aluria Software's assets; thus making Aluria Software a division of EarthLink.
Aluria Software develops and markets security
and protection products for consumers, small businesses, and enterprise customers.
network product. New Edge also manages network connections for more than 350 multi-site retailers and has received several awards, most recently the Front & Sullivan “Customer Value Enhancement” Award and Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” for Remote Access and Mobility Services.
The acquisition of New Edge strengthens EarthLink’s move into the business-to-business markets. New Edge's core network assets have provided EarthLink Business Solutions with a larger coverage area. EarthLink Business Solutions’ product offerings include: dial-up, ADSL, SDSL
, fractional and full T1
s and T3
s. EarthLink Business Solutions call center is located in New Edge’s Vancouver, Washington
, campus.
to redirect web browser users accessing nonexistent domains to a page containing sponsored search results, ads, and a Yahoo search form. The DNS
protocol requires that a query for a nonexistent domain must return the "NXDOMAIN" error response. Instead of this response, EarthLink's DNS servers return several IP addresses for the HTTP servers that implement their redirection service. While such redirection might be helpful to users of some web browsers, it breaks the functionality of many other Internet applications, which assume that the DNS is implemented according to the standard specifications. EarthLink's redirection also prevents the user's web browser from detecting NXDOMAIN errors and handling them according to the user's preference.
Comments left in the official EarthLink blog announcing the feature http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/08/handling_dead_domains_1.php and news aggregators like Slashdot
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/03/1359221 have been overwhelmingly negative. In 2003, VeriSign
implemented a similar feature called Site Finder
for all .com
and .net
domains. VeriSign ultimately reversed the change after the ensuing controversy and under pressure from ICANN
. While Site Finder affected all Internet users, EarthLink's redirection feature is only applicable to EarthLink ISP customers. In contrast with VeriSign's policy of not mentioning the effect of Site Finder on non-HTTP-based services, EarthLink says it is trying to minimize the impact on such uses of DNS, which is impossible, since a DNS query doesn't contain any information that can be used by the DNS server to determine whether the addresses obtained from the query will be used for HTTP or other traffic.
After about a month of complaints on the blog, EarthLink made available two DNS servers that it says are unaffected by the service and should properly return NXDOMAIN for all "dead" domain names. http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/09/more_info_on_dead_domain_handl.php These must be manually configured on machines of customers who wish to use them. The company says it will not provide technical support for these alternate servers.
During 2005 and 2006 EarthLink began blacklisting
email from a large number of smaller hosting companies to combat spam.
which would have required him to take an undetermined leave of absence. The company's Board of Directors
named Mike Lunsford
, Vice-President of Voice and Access, as interim CEO. Betty died on January 2, 2007. Scott Richard Wilson quickly replaced Garry Betty but on May 2007,announced that he would be taking a Vice president job at New York Life and on June 25, 2007, EarthLink named Rolla Huff its President and CEO. On January 29, 2008, EarthLink announced that Rolla Huff would replace Robert Kavner as Chairman of the Board.
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
(ISP) headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It claims 1.94 million subscribers.
Business
Satellite Internet access
Satellite Internet access is Internet access provided through satellites. The service can be provided to users world-wide through low Earth orbit satellites. Geostationary satellites can offer higher data speeds, but their signals can not reach some polar regions of the world...
, and cable
Cable modem
A cable modem is a type of network bridge and modem that provides bi-directional data communication via radio frequency channels on a HFC and RFoG infrastructure. Cable modems are primarily used to deliver broadband Internet access in the form of cable Internet, taking advantage of the high...
. Both dial-up and high speed Internet access are available nationwide. In addition to Internet access, EarthLink offers Web hosting, e-commerce services for individuals, small and medium-sized businesses. EarthLink also offers different types of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone services.
In addition to selling the company's various Internet connections online and by phone, EarthLink operates retail kiosks in some Fry's Electronics
Fry's Electronics
Fry's Electronics is a big-box store and retailer of software, consumer electronics, computer hardware, with in store computer repair and custom computer building services and household appliances with a chain of superstores headquartered in Silicon Valley...
stores, staffed by two to five representatives directly employed by EarthLink, rather than Fry's.
History
EarthLink was founded in 1994 by Sky DaytonSky Dayton
Sky Dylan Dayton is an American entrepreneur.Dayton is the founder of EarthLink, co-founder of eCompanies, founder and chairman of Boingo.-Early life:...
at age 23. Dayton reportedly spent an entire week trying to configure his own computer for Internet access. He realized there was an opportunity to create a simple, user friendly ISP.
From a modest beginning of ten modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
s, the company has grown to include more than 2,000 POP
Point of presence
A point of presence is an artificial demarcation point or interface point between communications entities. It may include a meet-me-room.In the US, this term became important during the court-ordered breakup of the Bell Telephone system...
numbers in the U.S., and more than 40,000 internationally.
On February 4, 2000, the company, then based in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, merged with Atlanta-founded MindSpring
MindSpring
MindSpring Enterprise was a major Internet service provider headquartered in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Mindspring merged with EarthLink on February 4, 2000, with the company retaining the EarthLink name...
, making it the second-largest ISP in the U.S., after AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
.
On December 7, 2001 Earthlink acquired OmniSky, a wireless provider.
On June 10, 2002, EarthLink acquired PeoplePC
PeoplePC
PeoplePC is an Internet service provider owned by EarthLink.PeoplePC was founded by Nick Grouf, Max Metral and David Waxman, and launched in the USA in October 1999...
, a value-priced dial-up service that has more dial-up access numbers than any other ISP (including AOL). PeoplePC's direct competitors are NetZero
NetZero
NetZero is an Internet service provider based in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. It is a subsidiary of United Online, owner of Juno Online Services and BlueLight Internet Services. The current chairman, president, and CEO of United Online is Mark Goldston.- History :NetZero launched in...
and Netscape
Netscape
Netscape Communications is a US computer services company, best known for Netscape Navigator, its web browser. When it was an independent company, its headquarters were in Mountain View, California...
.
In July 2005, EarthLink announced that it was closing the last of its in-house American call centers, though the company still has American call centers via out-source telecom companies.
EarthLink cut 2,600 jobs in 2003 and 2004 Although EarthLink has reduced its expenses from $283,357,000 in 2003 to $227,285,000 in 2005, their earnings are shrinking. In 2003, EarthLink reported revenues of $1,401,930,000, but by 2005, they were only $1,290,072,000.
In October 2006, EarthLink reported its first quarterly loss in more than 2½ years. Revenue from dial-up customers dropped 16.8 percent as the company lost 320,001 of those customers from the previous year. The company predicted another loss in the fourth quarter of 2006 of $15–$25 million due to investment in Helio.
In response to budgetary concerns, EarthLink began a major restructuring in late Summer 2007 which involved laying off half its employees and withdrawing from several product lines.
EarthLink returned to profitability in the fourth quarter of 2007, posting free cash flow of $59 million and $71 million of EBITDA
EBITDA
EBITDA is an acronym for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. It is a non-GAAP metric that is measured exactly as stated. All interest, tax, depreciation and amortization entries in the income statement are reversed out from the bottom-line net income...
for the quarter.
EarthLink acquired STS Telecom on 2nd March 2011. It announced that it will integrate STS Telecom into its newly established "EarthLink Business" division.
Free WiFi initiative
In 2006, EarthLink worked with PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, Anaheim
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...
and nine other cities to deploy public Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi or Wifi, is a mechanism for wirelessly connecting electronic devices. A device enabled with Wi-Fi, such as a personal computer, video game console, smartphone, or digital audio player, can connect to the Internet via a wireless network access point. An access point has a range of about 20...
networks. It teamed up with Google in an effort to bring such a network to San Francisco. EarthLink saw citywide Wi-Fi as a way to compensate for the ongoing loss of dialup customers, and hoped to use its strong brand identity and established customer base to gain an edge in the market.
EarthLink's municipal wireless efforts began to dissolve in late August 2007 when the financially ailing company said it was no longer willing to solely fund construction of city-wide wireless networks in San Francisco and 11 other cities. The plan to build free wireless in San Francisco was formally scrapped by the city on September 12, 2007. A project in Chicago had stopped cold, and Houston
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
has fined EarthLink for falling behind deadlines. On May 13, 2008, EarthLink announced it was ending its free WiFi program in Philadelphia.
Reed Slatkin
In 2002, when co-founder Reed SlatkinReed Slatkin
Reed Eliot Slatkin was an initial investor and co-founder of EarthLink and the perpetrator of one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the United States since that conducted by Charles Ponzi himself....
's Ponzi scheme
Ponzi scheme
A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to its investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the individual or organization running the operation...
made headlines, EarthLink released a statement:
"The legal proceedings concerning ex-Board member Reed Slatkin do not involve or impact EarthLink or EarthLink funds. The proceedings involve Mr. Slatkin and his personal clients."
Helio
On January 26, 2005, EarthLink announced that it had formed an agreement with Korean cellphone service provider SK TelecomSK Telecom
SK Telecom Co., Ltd. or Sunkyoung Telecom is a South Korean wireless telecommunications operator, controlled by the SK Group, one of the country's largest chaebol. As a part of SK Group, SK stands for Sun Kyung.SK Telecom is a provider of mobile service in Korea, with 50.5% of the market share as...
to jointly own and operate a new MVNO in the U.S. wireless marketplace. The name of this new company is Helio. The network was expected to commence operations sometime in spring 2006. Helio's business model revolves around providing advanced wireless devices not commonly seen for sale in the US market to technology-savvy consumers. The company's flagship device is the Helio Ocean
Helio Ocean
The Helio Ocean is a dual slider Internet-enabled multimedia wireless mobile device sold by mobile virtual network operator wireless carrier Helio, and manufactured by Pantech Curitel. A distinctive design feature of the Ocean is its dual sliding mechanism — when slid down in the vertical...
. On June 27, 2008, they agreed to sell their stake in the company to Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile USA
Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. is a wireless communications services provider based in Warren, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 2001 as a mobile virtual network operator, Virgin Mobile USA, Inc. commenced operations under the Virgin Mobile brand in June, 2002...
.
Aluria Software, LLC
Aluria Software, LLC was a privately held company founded in 1999 by Jim Kruse, Jamie Southworth & Matthew Garrison and based in Lake Mary, FloridaLake Mary, Florida
Lake Mary is a city in Seminole County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,456 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 15,230...
. On August 22, 2005 EarthLink, Inc. announced an agreement to acquire Aluria Software's assets; thus making Aluria Software a division of EarthLink.
Aluria Software develops and markets security
Computer security
Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...
and protection products for consumers, small businesses, and enterprise customers.
New Edge Networks
EarthLink completed its acquisition of New Edge Networks April 13, 2006. New Edge Networks is a CLEC that provides network solutions to businesses through direct and wholesale channels. New Edge differentiates itself from its competition with its private backbone and MPLSMpls
MPLS or Mpls can refer to:* Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States* Multiprotocol Label Switching, a data-carrying mechanism in computer networking...
network product. New Edge also manages network connections for more than 350 multi-site retailers and has received several awards, most recently the Front & Sullivan “Customer Value Enhancement” Award and Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant” for Remote Access and Mobility Services.
The acquisition of New Edge strengthens EarthLink’s move into the business-to-business markets. New Edge's core network assets have provided EarthLink Business Solutions with a larger coverage area. EarthLink Business Solutions’ product offerings include: dial-up, ADSL, SDSL
SDSL
SDSL may refer to:*Symmetric digital subscriber line*Site-directed spin labeling...
, fractional and full T1
Digital Signal 1
Digital signal 1 is a T-carrier signaling scheme devised by Bell Labs. DS1 is a widely used standard in telecommunications in North America and Japan to transmit voice and data between devices. E1 is used in place of T1 outside North America, Japan, and South Korea...
s and T3
Digital Signal 3
A Digital Signal 3 is a digital signal level 3 T-carrier. It may also be referred to as a T3 line.*The data rate for this type of signal is 44.736 Mbit/s.*This level of carrier can transport 28 DS1 level signals within its payload....
s. EarthLink Business Solutions call center is located in New Edge’s Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver, Washington
Vancouver is a city on the north bank of the Columbia River in the U.S. state of Washington. Incorporated in 1857, it is the fourth largest city in the state with a 2010 census population of 161,791 as of April 1, 2010...
, campus.
DNS and filtering controversy
In August 2006 EarthLink teamed up with Yahoo and BarefruitBarefruit
- Technology :Barefruit has developed a range of solutions to identify and redirect internet error traffic. These errors are either user generated, such as Domain Name System errors as a result of mis-typing domain names into the internet browser address bar, or HTTP errors which are a result of...
to redirect web browser users accessing nonexistent domains to a page containing sponsored search results, ads, and a Yahoo search form. The DNS
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
protocol requires that a query for a nonexistent domain must return the "NXDOMAIN" error response. Instead of this response, EarthLink's DNS servers return several IP addresses for the HTTP servers that implement their redirection service. While such redirection might be helpful to users of some web browsers, it breaks the functionality of many other Internet applications, which assume that the DNS is implemented according to the standard specifications. EarthLink's redirection also prevents the user's web browser from detecting NXDOMAIN errors and handling them according to the user's preference.
Comments left in the official EarthLink blog announcing the feature http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/08/handling_dead_domains_1.php and news aggregators like Slashdot
Slashdot
Slashdot is a technology-related news website owned by Geeknet, Inc. The site, which bills itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters", features user-submitted and ‑evaluated current affairs news stories about science- and technology-related topics. Each story has a comments section...
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/03/1359221 have been overwhelmingly negative. In 2003, VeriSign
VeriSign
Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Dulles, Virginia that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the .com, .net, and .name generic top-level domains and the .cc and .tv country-code...
implemented a similar feature called Site Finder
Site Finder
Site Finder was a wildcard DNS record for all .com and .net unregistered domain names, run by .com and .net top-level domain operator VeriSign between 15 September 2003 and 4 October 2003.-Site Finder:...
for all .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
and .net
.net
The domain name net is a generic top-level domain used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. The name is derived from network, indicating its originally intended purpose for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as Internet service providers and other infrastructure companies...
domains. VeriSign ultimately reversed the change after the ensuing controversy and under pressure from ICANN
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
. While Site Finder affected all Internet users, EarthLink's redirection feature is only applicable to EarthLink ISP customers. In contrast with VeriSign's policy of not mentioning the effect of Site Finder on non-HTTP-based services, EarthLink says it is trying to minimize the impact on such uses of DNS, which is impossible, since a DNS query doesn't contain any information that can be used by the DNS server to determine whether the addresses obtained from the query will be used for HTTP or other traffic.
After about a month of complaints on the blog, EarthLink made available two DNS servers that it says are unaffected by the service and should properly return NXDOMAIN for all "dead" domain names. http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/09/more_info_on_dead_domain_handl.php These must be manually configured on machines of customers who wish to use them. The company says it will not provide technical support for these alternate servers.
During 2005 and 2006 EarthLink began blacklisting
DNSBL
A DNSBL is a list of IP addresses published through the Internet Domain Name Service either as a zone file that can be used by DNS server software, or as a live DNS zone that can be queried in real-time...
email from a large number of smaller hosting companies to combat spam.
CEO Changes
On November 21, 2006, EarthLink reported in a press release that its CEO, Garry Betty, had been diagnosed with a serious form of cancerCancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
which would have required him to take an undetermined leave of absence. The company's Board of Directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
named Mike Lunsford
Mike Lunsford
Mike Lunsford is the interim CEO at RealNetworks, Inc. He joined the company in 2008. In his role, he oversees RealNetworks' core business, including RealPlayer, SuperPass, Software as a Service, Intercarrier Messaging, and Helix....
, Vice-President of Voice and Access, as interim CEO. Betty died on January 2, 2007. Scott Richard Wilson quickly replaced Garry Betty but on May 2007,announced that he would be taking a Vice president job at New York Life and on June 25, 2007, EarthLink named Rolla Huff its President and CEO. On January 29, 2008, EarthLink announced that Rolla Huff would replace Robert Kavner as Chairman of the Board.
External links
- Official homepage of EarthLink
- New Edge Networks