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RCN Corporation, founded in 1993 and based in Herndon, Virginia, is the first American facilities-based competitive ("overbuild") provider of bundled telephone, cable television and high-speed internet service delivered over its own fiber-optic local network to consumers in the Boston, New York, Eastern Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and Chicago areas. RCN was originally Residential Communications Network.

As of 2006^[update], RCN claims 424,000 domestic customers and 130 cable franchises.

RCN serves the following locations: Allentown, Pennsylvania; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; New York City, New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ^[2]

History[link]

RCN was originally created in 1993 by developer David McCourt and Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc., the Omaha construction giant. Kiewit also owned MFS, a pioneering Competitive Access Provider (CAP). In a series of moves, RCN purchased C-TEC, the parent of Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Telephone (Commonwealth was spun out several years later), while MFS spun off its small residential telephone operations to RCN. MFS was later purchased by Worldcom. RCN/C-TEC became a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) when the Telecom Act of 1996 passed.

RCN then began its growth as a cable TV overbuilder, constructing competitor cable systems in markets that already had cable service. Most of its systems were partnerships with power companies, which provided rights-of-way on poles. RCN featured "triple play" television/internet/telephone service, though for some time its voice operations were largely resold incumbent telephone company lines. It purchased existing US East-Coast ISPs Erol's Internet, UltraNet Communications, Interport and JavaNet. On the West Coast, it purchased existing ISPs DNAI and Brainstorm. In Chicago, it bought into the market by acquiring overbuilder 21st Century Telecom. The name "RCN" originally stood for "Residential Communications Network" though the parent entity was RCN Corp.

In early February 2009, RCN converted to an all-digital network. With the transition, the company is able to use the entire spectrum for digital and high-definition television broadcasting, reducing the need to compress signals, and offering more channels with higher-quality video service.

ABRY Partners, a private equity firm, acquired local Internet and cable-service provider RCN Corporation for $1.2 billion in 2010. ^{[3] [4]}

Acquisitions and selloffs[link]

On January 21, 1998, RCN paid $110.5M for UltraNet in Massachusetts and Erol's in Virginia, as reported by The Boston Globe on January 22, 1998.

On June 16, 1998, RCN paid $11 million in stock and $871,000 in cash for Interport Communications, Inc.

On July 27, 1998 RCN paid $13.4 million in stock and $2.4 million in cash for Javanet, Inc.

On March 20, 2006 RCN bought^{[5][dead link]} Consolidated Edison Communications Holding Co., a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison for $32 million and $7 million in working capital.

On August 18, 2006, RCN announced it was selling its San Francisco operations, representing 18,000 subscribers, to Astound Broadband for $45 million.^[6]

On September 13, 2006, Bloomberg News, citing two anonymous sources, reported that RCN hired the Blackstone Group to examine the possibility of putting the company up for sale.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• RCN Community Portal
• RCN Forum at Broadband Reports
• THE WALL STREET TRANSCRIPT CEO Interview: PETER AQUINO published 02/13/2006

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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2010)

Gordon Quinn is Artistic Director and founding member of Kartemquin Films, a 2007 recipient of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Gordon Quinn has been making documentaries for over 45 years and has produced or directed over 30 films. His recent directing credits include Prisoner of Her Past and A Good Man. His producing credits include the films Hoop Dreams; In the Family;Vietnam, Long Time Coming; Golub: Late Works Are the Catastrophes; 5 Girls; Refrigerator Mothers; and Stevie. Most recently, Gordon executive produced Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita and The New Americans, for which he directed the Palestinian segment. Currently, he is Executive Producing several new films for Kartemquin.

Gordon has been a long-time supporter of public media and community-based independent media groups, and served on the boards of several organizations including the National Coalition of Public Broadcast Producers, the Citizens Committee on the Media, the Chicago Access Corporation, the Illinois Humanities Council, the Public Square Advisory Committee and the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Filmography[link]

Executive Producer:

• 'The Interrupters, in 2011
• ''No Crossover, in 2010
• ''Typeface, in 2009
• ''At the Death House Door, in 2008
• Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita, 2007
• The New Americans, 2004 TV episode
• 5 Girls, 2001
• Hoop Dreams, 1994

Producer:

• 'Prisoner of her Past, in 2010 (with Joanna Rudnick and Howard Reich)
• ''In the Family, in 2008 (with Joanna Rudnick)
• Golub: Late Works Are the Catastrophes, 2004 (with Jerry Blumenthal)
• Refrigerator Mothers, 2003 (with JJ Hanley and David E. Simpson)
• Stevie, 2002
• Vietnam, Long Time Coming, 1998
• Chicago Crossings: Bridges and Boundaries, 1994
• Higher Goals, 1993
• Grassroots Chicago, 1991
• ''Golub, 1988
• Taylor Chain, 1985
• Women's Voices: The Gender Gap, 1984
• The Last Pullman Car, 1983
• The Chicago Maternity Center Story, 1976
• Marco, 1970 (with Gerald Temaner)
• Thumbs Down, 1968
• Home For Life, 1968

Director:

• A Good Man, in 2011
• 'Prisoner of her Past, in 2010
• ''Golub: Late Works Are the Catastrophes, 2004
• The New Americans, 2004 TV episode (Palestinian story director)
• Vietnam, Long Time Coming, 1998
• Golub, 1988
• Marco, 1970
• Thumbs Down, 1968
• Home For Life, 1968
• Inquiring Nuns, 1968

Cinematographer:

• Golub: Late Works Are the Catastrophes, 2004
• The New Americans, 2004 TV episode
• Aging Out, 2004
• Refrigerator Mothers, 2003
• Stevie, 2002
• Vietnam, Long Time Coming, 1998
• Grassroots Chicago, 1991
• Golub'', 1988
• Women's Voices: The Gender Gap, 1984
• ''Taylor Chain II: A Story of Collective Bargaining, 1984
• Anarchism in America, 1983
• The Last Pullman Car, 1983
• All of Us Stronger, 1976
• Hum 255, 1969
• Thumbs Down, 1968
• Home For Life, 1968
• Inquiring Nuns, 1968

Editor:

• Marco, 1970
• Home For Life, 1968
• ''Inquiring Nuns, 1968
• Thumbs Down, 1968

Writer:

• The Last Pullman Car, 1983

Awards[link]

• Excellence in Documentary Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival for Stevie, 2003^[1]

External links[link]

Gordon Quinn at the Internet Movie Database

References[link]