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Microcap & Penny Stocks : OTC:BB FTGX: Fibernet Telecom Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (63)	4/13/2001 10:04:11 AM
From: AJ Berger	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 79

'Last Mile' Broadband Networker Raises $275 Million (04/10/01, 3:48 p.m. ET) Reuters SAN FRANCISCO—A group of private equity investors finalized a $275 million financing package for CityNet Telecommunications Inc., the broadband infrastructure startup said Tuesday. The deal was one of the largest private equity investments in a technology startup this year and marked yet another big bet by private investors in the hot optical fiber and broadband networking market. Tuesday's investment in 2-year-old CityNet gives the Silver Spring, Md., company $175 million in cash and $100 million in debt financing for it to continue deploying ``last-mile'' fiber optic networks to connect buildings in metro areas. CityNet, which now has raised a total of $375 million, runs fiber optic lines through sewer systems in order to avoid costly and time-consuming trench digging along city streets, one of the physical impediments holding up broadband access for companies and consumers in cities. Financing from Tuesday's round will be used by CityNet for engineering, construction, and materials in deploying fiber optic lines for the company's markets, CityNet chief executive Bob Berger said. CityNet began deploying fiber optic lines this year in Indianapolis; Omaha, Neb., and Albuquerque, N.M., and in March signed an agreement with an undisclosed municipal government of a major European city for a broadband network there. A CityNet spokesman said the company is in late-stage talks for permits and licensing agreements with 28 other city governments in the United States and Europe, including Chicago; Washington, D.C.; Dallas; and Dublin, Ireland. CityNet's new investors in Tuesday's deal included private equity firms The Carlyle Group; Berkshire Partners; Trimaran Capital Partners; Great Hill Partners; and Fay Richwhite. They joined earlier investors including Telecom Partners, Crescendo Ventures, and CIBC Capital Partners. ------------------------------------------ Note: To the best of my knowledge CityNet (and Verizon) have an exclusive deal with the sole owning company of the NYC Sewer system to use it to distribute telecommunications for the Last mile. Fibernet has to dig expensive trenches, or lease dark fibers, just like everybody else. The fact that the New York Boro Presidents office has not compelled the sewer owners to open up their tunnels to other wire layers reminds me of the old Tamminy Hall days of NYC politics at the turn of the last Century. CityNet also uses robotic technology (the sewer people developed to clean and inspect sewers pipes) to actually lay the cable, further reducing costs.