Sacramento Cable Upstart Hits Financial Speed Bump
SMUD Issues Lean On Some Lines Used By Cable Provider
POSTED: 6:21 p.m. PST February 26, 2002
UPDATED: 10:10 a.m. PST February 27, 2002
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Billed as the best and newest kind of cable provider, WINfirst hit the Sacramento scene with a bang. But there's word now that the high-tech "hookup" might have hit a financial speed bump.
Sacramento is the first city where WINfirst is giving the existing cable system a run for its money, but it is failing to pay some of its bills.
It's not known how much money they owe, but the Sacramento Municipal Utility District has issued a lien on some of the lines used by the cable provider.
"I have been informed by SMUD, by PacBell and by the city that, as of Friday afternoon, they were not going to issue any new permits to WINfirst, pending payment of, what were then, outstanding fees," Sacramento Cable Commission spokesman Richard Esposto said.
WINfirst officials said that they are not in financial trouble. They said that the work they started is done, and they just haven't started a new phase yet.
WINfirst has cut back its furious pace of installing fiber optic cable in Sacramento. Bechtel, a worldwide construction giant and a WINfirst strategic partner were managing the installation. That relationship has been recently canceled.
Dozens of Bechtel engineers left WINfirst's Sacramento headquarters.
Bechtel has since notified SMUD that they had not been paid, and that they issued a stop notice, which is a type of a lien.
The Seattle Times has reported that WINfirst is having serious trouble raising enough investment capital to fuel its rapid expansion.
The company's Sacramento general manager said that they are cutting back and slowing down, but that they are committed to Sacramento.
Currently, cable television in Sacramento is supplied by AT&T Broadband, which is in the process of being sold back to Comcast, a company that had run Sacramento's cable franchise in the 1990s.
Sacramento is the first city where WINfirst is giving the existing cable system a run for its money, but it is failing to pay some of its bills.
It's not known how much money they owe, but the Sacramento Municipal Utility District has issued a lien on some of the lines used by the cable provider.
"I have been informed by SMUD, by PacBell and by the city that, as of Friday afternoon, they were not going to issue any new permits to WINfirst, pending payment of, what were then, outstanding fees," Sacramento Cable Commission spokesman Richard Esposto said.
WINfirst officials said that they are not in financial trouble. They said that the work they started is done, and they just haven't started a new phase yet.
WINfirst has cut back its furious pace of installing fiber optic cable in Sacramento. Bechtel, a worldwide construction giant and a WINfirst strategic partner were managing the installation. That relationship has been recently canceled.
Dozens of Bechtel engineers left WINfirst's Sacramento headquarters.
Bechtel has since notified SMUD that they had not been paid, and that they issued a stop notice, which is a type of a lien.
The Seattle Times has reported that WINfirst is having serious trouble raising enough investment capital to fuel its rapid expansion.
The company's Sacramento general manager said that they are cutting back and slowing down, but that they are committed to Sacramento.
Currently, cable television in Sacramento is supplied by AT&T Broadband, which is in the process of being sold back to Comcast, a company that had run Sacramento's cable franchise in the 1990s.
Copyright 2002 by TheKCRAChannel. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
