By Arthur Cole , CT Contributing Editor Competition between cable and overbuilders is heating up, only to be countered by a slowing economy.
Cable especially is poised and ready to take the largest bite of the digital communications pie.
The year 2000 will be remembered as the year the cable industry moved into the position as front-runner in the race to provide advanced digital multimedia services. Blame it on the U.S. economy. Since the dot-com euphoria has evaporated, capital markets have tightened considerably, putting the brakes on companies that don t have a strong revenue stream to finance infrastructure deployments. The most notable example of overbuilder troubles came late in December when RCN, principally backed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, announced it was curtailing plans to enter new markets and instead focus on cities where it already has a presence. The company provides service to nearly a million homes in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.