RCN Corp. this week wrapped up its merger of NEON Communications Group and unveiled its expanded commercial division.
The East Coast companies announced in June that they would merge for up to $5.25 per share in a deal totaling approximately $260 million. RCN is one of several CLECs that offers video services, along with voice and data. It competes against Verizon Communications Inc., creator of the much-hyped FiOS TV and Internet product. Buying NEON, a retail and wholesale service provider, gives RCN complementary network assets and customers, RCN said in June.
The acquisition further is evidence of the cable industry’s increased focus on the business market. Cable operators are taking telcos’ consolidation and IPTV focus as a sign that the SMB market is wide open for new entrants.
RCN now is integrating NEON products, processes and employees. Part of that transition, executives said, included renaming NEON and the RCN Business Solutions unit to RCN Metro Optical Networks.
Felipe Alvarez, president of RCN Metro Optical Networks, said that name was chosen “because we believe it better reflects our company's positioning in the market as a regional, facilities-based provider of communications services to carriers, enterprise customers and governmental agencies.”
RCN Metro’s network now runs from Maine to Virginia and out to Chicago, Alvarez said. Also, he added, “We have a deeper footprint in our metropolitan markets – New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and Chicago – and high-capacity network to cities such as Albany, Ashburn, Baltimore, Burlington, Hartford, Manchester, Portland, Poughkeepsie, Providence, and White Plains; as well as growth potential to surrounding areas.”
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