Weisel has no underwriting ties to these companies. Call it the MFS class of 1996. Many, though not all, parlayed their phone experience into jobs building start-up telecom outfits. What some CLEC leaders didn't forget is that while data services will one day lead to profits, operating basic local and long distance phone service are what pay the bills. One of the common mistakes of failing CLECs was to push data services first and backfill with phone service.
Observers call that a fatal flip of priorities.
Monthly, recurring voice payments are their biggest asset, I think. Lehman Brothers, companies. Royce Holland, the granddaddy of the CLECs, is often cited for his emphasis on building back-office support for the basic functions like billing, service orders, and handing off information between competing phone companies. And when the funding was big, dreams got even bigger. Initially, with copious amounts of investor cash at their disposal, upstarts took aim at the complacent Baby Bells and planned to run loops around them, picking off lucrative business customers in big cities with new technologies like digital subscriber lines.