RCN Announces Expansion of its Bundled Telecom Services to Daly City, California
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Phone, Cable TV and High-Speed Internet Now Offered in Three Bay Area
Communities
PRINCETON, N.J., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- RCN Corporation (NASDAQ:RCNC)
announced today that it is now offering its full suite of ResiLink bundled
telecommunications services over its MegaBand(TM) Network to Daly City,
California residents in its West Coast market. The expansion to Daly City, a
community with over 31,000 homes, marks the company's third Bay Area community
where residents now have the opportunity to choose one company to serve all
their communication and entertainment needs.
"We are excited to further expand our presence in the Bay Area. Our
services are now available from the Bay to the Ocean, covering the entire top
of the Peninsula. Our fiber-rich network allows consumers to enjoy a clear
telephone connection, 130 cable television channels and high-speed Internet
connections that range from tens to thousands of times faster than standard
dial-up connections, all from one provider, and all on one bill," said Michael
Adams, President and Chief Operating Officer. "To date, we have received a
warm reception from California residents who enjoy the value of the services
we provide. We look forward to continuing our aggressive expansion in
Northern and Southern California."
Daly City, located between San Francisco and South San Francisco, with
264 homes per mile of plant, far exceeds the national average of 30 homes per
mile of plant. RCN's strategy is to deliver services to the most densely
populated areas in the country to fully leverage its high-capacity
MegaBand(TM) Network and generate significant revenue streams. RCN's network
only utilizes 15% of its available capacity today, with ample capacity left
over to deliver additional broadband services in the future.
In the Bay Area, RCN is currently offering its bundled phone, cable and
high speed Internet access to residents in South San Francisco and San Mateo.
The company looks forward to offering services in Redwood City and the city of
San Francisco where it has already received federal and local regulatory
approvals. In Southern California, RCN formed an alliance with Southern
California Edison to assist with the construction of its MegaBand(TM) Network
in the Los Angeles area where it expects to deliver services next year. To
date, RCN has designed or built over 4,200 miles of fiber of its high-capacity
network in California.
ResiLink Order Management and Customer Relationship System
RCN has rolled out its ResiLink bundled packages to over 90,000 homes on
the West and East Coasts. In every new market the company enters, it offers
its full suite of bundled services. The packages are priced from $69 to $149
and offer substantial savings from what is available in the markets today from
incumbent operators. The company is in the process of developing an order
management and customer relationship system so that it is able to scale its
ResiLink bundles to every market where it operates.
ResiLink allows RCN customers to chose from four distinctive service
packages for a flat monthly fee:
-- RCN's ResiLink Platinum bundle provides enhanced services for heavy
telephone, cable and Internet users.
-- RCN's ResiLink Gold bundle offers a similarly comprehensive package of
services without the option of a second phone line.
-- RCN's ResiLink Silver bundle provides advanced communications services
to customers without a computer or interest in the Internet.
-- RCN's ResiLink Bronze is designed for heavy Internet users.
RCN's Density Driven Market Development
RCN is building a national telecommunications presence by focusing on
clusters of communities in the most densely populated regions of the country.
RCN's high-capacity local fiber-optic networks target densely populated areas
comprising 44% of the US residential communications market spread over just 6%
of its geography.
In addition to the company's rapidly expanding West Coast presence, RCN is
currently building its network or offering its services to residents in Boston
and its surrounding suburbs; Chicago and its surrounding communities; several
boroughs in New York City including Manhattan and Queens; Northern New Jersey;
and in numerous Philadelphia-area communities.
RCN has secured regulatory approvals to cover over 13 million homes at the
federal level and over 5 million homes at the local level. RCN has received
regulatory approvals to serve additional East Coast communities surrounding
its current operations in the Boston to Washington corridor, communities on
the West Coast in the San Francisco to San Diego corridor as well as the
Pacific Northwest cities of Seattle and Portland and their surrounding
suburbs. These approvals give the company a significant competitive advantage
in the construction of its Megaband(TM) Network in the densest markets in the
country. RCN is in 7 of the top 10 most densely populated US markets.
With $3.6 billion in available cash, the company is pre-funded in all the
markets where it currently operates. In addition, RCN has sufficient capital
to enter several new markets and believes it can bring them to profitability.
About The RCN Network
RCN's Megaband(TM) Network is a unique broadband fiber-optic platform
capable of offering a full suite of communications services -- including fully
featured voice, video and high-speed Internet -- to residential customers.
The network employs SONET ring backbone architecture, and localized nodes
built to ensure RCN's state-of-the-art fiber optics travel to within 900 feet
of RCN customers, with fewer electronics and lower maintenance costs than
existing local networks.
About RCN Corporation
RCN Corporation (NASDAQ:RCNC) is the nation's first and largest single-
source facilities-based provider of bundled local and long distance phone,
cable television and high-speed Internet services to the densest residential
markets in the country. RCN is currently delivering broadband services over
its Megaband(TM) Network or designing and building its network on both the
East and West coasts as well as Chicago. In addition, RCN is a leading
Internet Service Provider in its markets.
Some of the statements made by RCN in this press release are forward-
looking in nature. Actual results may differ materially from those projected
in forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors. RCN
believes that the primary factors include, but are not limited to
uncertainties relating to economic conditions, acquisitions and divestitures,
government and regulatory policies, the pricing and availability of equipment,
materials, inventory and programming, RCN's ability to develop and penetrate
existing and new markets, technological developments and changes in the
competitive environment in which RCN operates. Additional information
concerning these and other important factors can be found in RCN's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements in this release
should be evaluated in light of these important factors.
SOURCE RCN Corporation
-0- 05/19/2000
/CONTACT: Valerie Haertel, Investor Relations for RCN, 609-734-3816; or
John Henderson of Rubenstein Public Relations, 212-843-8030, for RCN/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 125089/
/Web site: rcn.com
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