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Digital Access pulls plug
By Joe Estrella
Multichannel News
3/1/01
Scratch Digital Access Inc. from the cable-overbuilder list: The firm said Thursday that it would suspend operations due to a lack of capital.
Digital Access had already said it would abandon plans to compete for cable, phone and Internet customers in Kansas, Missouri and Wisconsin in order to concentrate on building a network in Nashville, Tenn., with its limited capital. Now it appears that network won't
get built, either.
Digital Access CEO Joe Cece informed employees and local governments that had issued franchises that an inability to determine when senior-debt and high-yield markets might provide additional funding made continuing impossible.
'While we are disappointed in the outcome of this enterprise, we understand and accept the fact that market conditions beyond the control of our management team dictated this difficult decision,' said Cece, a former executive with Suburban Cable and Cablevision
Systems Corp., in a prepared statement.
Capital constraints have hit some overbuilders hard. American Broadband Inc. recently shelved plans to build systems in and around Buffalo, N.Y., citing capital constraints. And RCN Corp. recently shelved plans to compete in Philadelphia, although it blamed difficult
franchise negotiations there.
Digital Access first proclaimed its existence in December 1999, stating that it had raised $450 million from the likes of Bachow & Associates, First Union Capital Partners and Goldman, Sachs & Co., among others.
Its business plan called for a triple-play offering to 1.5 million residential and business customers in several states.
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