Stand and Deliver

Veteran media and telecom investor, David C. McCourt, tries hard to make sure his startup company's New York office look more like a guerrilla hideout than the headquarters of a telecoms firm. With its modest overheads, RCN's prices are typically about 5-10% lower a discount that can rise to 30% if customers choose all three services. Mr. McCourt is targeting mainly the lower-middle classes who tend to watch more TV and care more about its cost. Harlem, reports Mr. McCourt, is a better market for RCN than the Upper East Side. Mr. McCourt knows that one of the enemy's weakest spots is marketing: No empire lasts forever, proclaims a poster of Lenin, especially one that keeps you waiting five hours for a repairman. The result of Mr. McCourt's 25-years of successful investing in telecom and media is that they have given him impeccable credentials as a telecoms revolutionary.

The Economist

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