Chemistry junior Enjoli Hamilton said she had problems with her Internet service even before the latest interruption of her AT&T Broadband service.

“It’s been giving us problems all year,” she said.

And like Hamilton, many students living off campus who have cable modems are a portion of the 850,000 AT&T Broadband customers without Internet access since Saturday.

But company officials say the service may be back on as early as this evening.

“Our Michigan customers are scheduled to be brought back online beginning at 6 p.m. (today),” Dave Nyberg, communications supervisor for AT&T Broadband , said.

He said the process should take about four hours, so all customers should be back online by the end of the day.

“We will be contacting each of our customers by phone (today) to let them know that the service will be back up and they will be given instructions for rebooting their computers,” he said.

Nyberg said the interruption of service came after ExciteAtHome, a company AT&T Broadband had contracted to provide the backbone of its Internet service, shut off that service because of a breakdown in negotiations between the two companies concerning ExciteAtHome’s bankruptcy proceedings.

“We have, in essence, severed our relationship with ExciteAtHome and have across the country built our own high-speed Internet backbone,” he said.

AT&T Broadband, 1070 Trowbridge Road, prepared a prerecorded message for concerned customers after the bankruptcy of ExciteAtHome shut down cable Internet services.

The message informed customers that their Internet service has been temporarily interrupted. As compensation, the company is giving customers a two-day credit for every one day without Internet access.

But some students are not happy with the service they have received from AT&T Broadband.

Hamilton said her problems with the company also included poor turnaround times for repair service.

In mid-October, she reported Internet problems to AT&T Broadband, but they didn’t come to check the service until Nov. 17.

“For two and a half weeks the Internet would sporadically go on and off,” Hamilton said. “I just thought it was us, but the girls downstairs had the same problems.”

She has not received a bill from AT&T Broadband, but said the poor service has caused her to consider switching to a digital subscriber line for Internet access.

Mechanical engineering sophomore Ethan Fahy said he’s thinking of switching to DSL after he received a call Saturday saying his Internet access would be shut down for two to three weeks.

“It’s awful, and it’s finals week,” Fahy said. “We can’t e-mail teachers or keep in contact with people on campus.”

To gain Internet access, Fahy said he has to go to a campus computer lab.

Like Hamilton, Fahy has also had previous inconveniences caused by AT&T Broadband. He was double charged for installation and was overcharged on one month’s bill.

He said he is upset by the company’s customer service. His neighbors got a call regarding their Internet service on Monday.

The prerecorded message said their service would be back in about a month, rather than two to three weeks.

“It’s hard to contact anyone to give me answers,” Fahy said. “They just give me the runaround.”

Hospitality business senior Sarah Enlow said even though her Internet cable service is out, she can still access the Internet through the phone line.

“I can still get online through AOL, but only one person can be on at a time,” Enlow said.

Enlow said she is inconvenienced, and doesn’t like the compensation the company is offering.

“I don’t think the compensation is bad, but I just wish they would fix it.”