Going High Fiber
June 2000
Chief Executive Magazine
For his latest venture, veteran media and telecom investor, David C. McCourt, has raised more than $3 billion last year alone (including 65 billion from Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures) and has the backing of construction/investment powerhouse Peter Kiewit Sons. McCourt's RCN had laid more than 3,646 miles of fiber, by the end of 1999, an increase of 156 percent over 1998. McCourt is keeping his focus keen on his business plan and views his latest venture as a once-a-century opportunity, akin to the days 100 years ago when telephone lines were being laid, or a generation ago when cable was.
Usually, in a capital-intensive business, the first person in has a huge advantage, he says. But here, the technical, regulatory, and consumer environments are changing so rapidly that a new business like ours has the advantage of competing in a cost-effective way. Taking advantage of the cheaper movement of data over the Internet, McCourt says that by first quarter 2001 his long distance service will be delivered that way, followed, eventually by local telephone. McCourt is also clearly excited about the unknown and unknowable offerings of the future, claiming that when electricity was built, it was for lights. But today only 9 percent of electrical use is lights. That's how it will be for bandwidth.
