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To: MikeM54321 who wrote (1065)	10/17/2000 10:09:43 PM
From: ftth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

[edit]Hi Mike, looks like it's funded via investments: Western Integrated Networks Raises $830 Million To Build Residential Broadband Networks PR Newswire - July 21, 2000 18:54 DENVER, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Western Integrated Networks, LLC (WIN) announced today that it closed its second round of equity on June 30, 2000 bringing its total equity commitments up to $830 million. WIN is building residential high-capacity broadband networks that will deploy fiber directly to the home in Tier I/Tier II metropolitan communities in the western and southwestern United States. WIN's networks will be scalable and symmetrical and will deploy a dedicated Gigabit optical link to every home on its network. The Company's networks will capitalize on the significant demand for broadband services and will allow it to provide voice, video and data services, bundled or ala carte. To date, the company has won cable franchises in Sacramento and San Diego, CA, and Austin and San Antonio, TX covering approximately 1.65 million homes. WIN's targeted markets include: Austin, TX Los Angeles, CA Portland, OR San Antonio, TX San Francisco, CA Seattle, WA Dallas, TX Sacramento, CA Las Vegas, NV Houston, TX San Diego, CA Phoenix, AZ WIN's investor group includes: J.P. Morgan Madison Dearborn Columbia Capital First Union Capital The Blackstone Group Providence Equity Oak Investment Partners BCI Partners Dolphin Communications Duff, Ackermann & Goodrich Telesoft Partners WIN is based in Denver, CO. Any questions should be directed to James M. Kane, Chief Financial Officer at 303-407-1601. ================== Now what I'm wondering is if there's any connection between WINfirst and this WIN LLC holding company (see bottom): WIN Switching awards Lucent Technologies $50 million contract to build converged voice and data network in Pacific Northwest FOR RELEASE TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 28, 1999 Murray Hill, N.J. -- WIN Switching, a consortium of Independent Telephone Companies in the Pacific Northwest, and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) announced today that Lucent had been awarded a five-year, $50 million contract to build a converged telecommunications network that will bring advanced data and voice services to customers in rural and semi-rural areas of the Pacific Northwest. The consortium plans to offer residential and business customers voice and data switching services based on Lucent's broadband access solutions including the PathStar™ Access Server, Lucent's flagship 5ESS® Switch and the 7 R/E™ Packet Solutions portfolio. As the network is built, WIN Switching plans to add data networking capabilities to offer services such as telemedicine, distance learning and high-speed access to the Internet. This will give customers in rural areas quick access to information of particular interest to them, such as commodities prices and weather forecasts. "We plan to improve, enhance and expand service in rural and semi-rural areas by building a high-quality, high-capacity infrastructure," said Ron Hayhurst, Manager, WIN Switching. "Member companies of WIN Switching have provided reliable, high-quality access through the public voice network for decades. Now, the advanced data-networking technologies offered by Lucent will enable WIN Switching to keep up with changes in customer demand. WIN Switching intends to deploy new technology as demand warrants, and Lucent's flexible migration path from circuit to packet switching provides a cost-effective means of doing so." WIN Switching will employ Lucent's broadband access solutions as part of a core ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) network and will use Lucent's PathStar™ Access Server as a migration path to the 7 R/E solutions. The 7R/E Packet Driver easily evolves the 5ESS Switch to effectively handle voice-data convergence. The 7R/E Packet Driver connects the public switched telephone network with various data networks, such as IP or ATM networks. Service providers with a 5ESS Switch can now quickly and easily offer Internet access, Internet telephony services, or other popular data services, while simplifying network operations and protecting current investments. "Lucent's solution creates a converged backbone that provides the flexibility to offer voice or data services or both," said Bill Plunkett, senior sales vice president for emerging service providers at Lucent Technologies. "The types of services made available by broadband technology will give people in rural areas new business and learning opportunities. Lucent is delighted to be selected by WIN Switching to be part of the team making that happen." About WIN Switching WIN Switching is one of several Limited Liability Companies formed by Western Independent Networks, Inc. ("WIN"). WIN is the business development arm of the small, Independent Telephone Companies in the Pacific Northwest. Other companies associated with WIN are WIN Signaling, which provides SS7 services to member companies and others, and WIN Transport, which is working to improve the fiber optic interconnections in non-urban areas of the Pacific Northwest. WIN also started Washington Oregon Wireless, LLC, the Sprint PCS Network Member managing local Sprint PCS service in areas of those states. WOW is building a $60 Million Sprint PCS network in Oregon and Washington, using Lucent switching equipment and base stations.

To: MikeM54321 who wrote (1065)	10/17/2000 10:33:26 PM
From: ftth	Respond to of 46821

This also addresses the financing issue, or potential future options if investments dry up: MSOs May Go Back to Junk-Bond Well. Multichannel News, July 17, 2000 v21 i29 p100 By MIKE FARRELL The high-yield cable-bond market is beginning to show signs of resurgence, with at least four companies in the sector expected to issue debt soon. The high-yield market for cable bonds has been sluggish this year. But as interest rates show signs of stabilizing and cable companies find a need for capital to finance upgrades, several analysts see them returning to tap the junk-bond market. "The high-yield market is awakening from a relatively dormant state in terms of new issuance this year, but we haven't arrived yet at anything comparable to the volume of issuance we had in the past two years," UBS Warburg executive director and senior telecommunications and cable-television analyst Aryeh Bourkoff said. Bourkoff added that although the amount of debt issued is expected to be higher, the number of issuers is likely to be lower. And the bond offerings should come from the more established issuers; like Adelphia Communications Corp., Charter Communications Inc., EchoStar Communications Corp. and Insight Communications Co. Inc. According to some analysts, Adelphia could issue between $200 million and $400 million in high-yield debt, mainly to help finance its recent acquisition of GS Communications Inc., a cable operator based in Frederick, Md., for $836 million. Adelphia has said in the past that it would like to finance acquisitions one-half through debt and one-half through equity. Charter -- which has a $1 billion bridge loan through Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. -- could refinance that debt with junk bonds. Bourkoff said that although several rural cable MSOs tapped the high-yield markets in 1999, that was not expected this year. But he added that some residential competitive local-exchange carriers could raise money in the junk-bond market. CLECs that are also cable overbuilders, such as Wide Open West LLC and Western Integrated Networks LLC, could also do well, he said. "There has been a real bifurcation between the rural cable companies and the larger cable companies," Bourkoff said. "A lot of the rural cable companies are no longer able to issue debt. However, there is a backlog of first-time issuers in the residential CLEC market, like WOW and WIN, which are waiting to come back to the market when the high-yield market gets better, but not necessarily this summer." WOW and WIN had raised substantial sums earlier this year through venture-capital firms, but could also look to the debt markets as their funding needs grow, he added. "Certainly, [the residential CLEC business] is a growth business," Bourkoff said. "As these companies expand their business models, they can certainly tap the public markets on the debt side and the equity side." But one thing that shouldn't spur the junk-bond market is an anticipated $3 billion investment-grade offering that was expected late last week from AT&T Corp. "The buyer bases [between investment-grade and high-yield bonds] are very different," Bourkoff said. July is traditionally a slow period for the bond market. But coming off a hot June, which saw about $56.7 billion in investment-grade and high yield issues, the momentum is expected to carry over well into this month and perhaps beyond. "I would say the market window is opening, but it's not fully opened yet," Merrill Lynch & Co. high-yield-bond analyst Oren Cohen said. "There are a bunch of companies still on the sidelines." Cohen added that while new high-yield issues should pick up, some of the larger players in the cable industry -- including Adelphia, Cablevision Systems Corp. and Charter -- are at an advantage because they can always go to the banks for money if bond interest rates are too high. "All of these guys have bank facilities that are undrawn," he said. Bourkoff said the high-yield market should rebound because there is a tremendous need for capital as cable companies accelerate their upgrade plans. Couple that with stable interest rates, and tapping the junk-bond market looks like an attractive alternative to raise the needed funds. "The high-yield market has gotten marginally better because of additional cash inflows into mutual funds, which have increased demand somewhat. Secondly, the interest-rate environment has stabilized. Thirdly, there has not been that much supply," Bourkoff said. "The market will come back slowly." Cohen said some high-yield investors are still smarting from past losses. "There's always tension between the bond market and the stock market," he added. "There has been an upswing in defaults in the high-yield markets and a lot of marginal issues in the past few years. Investors in high-yield bonds have been wary of the market. The funds flows have not been [what they were, but we're starting to see funds flowing back." MCN