For sale: Enron’s fiber network

A disgraced telecom’s global dream ends up on the auction block

By Kristina Brenneman

The Portland Tribune, Jan 2, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Portland-based Enron Broadband Services Inc. Ñ the disgraced telecom that sought to blanket the globe in fiber-optic lines Ñ is auctioning off its 63-mile greater Portland network.

New bids must top by at least $50,000 the offer of an MCI subsidiary, Metropolitan Fiber Systems of Oregon Inc. of Houston, which is proposing to pay $300,000 for a network that would have fetched $100 million just five years ago, said Om Malik, author of “Broadbandits” and a senior writer at Business 2.0.

“Oh, how far we’ve fallen,” wrote Malik on his broadband blog page, GigaOm.

“It was a disaster,” he said. “They were trying to create a market that didn’t exist. It started with the PGE lines and expanded. They got into a situation where there was overcapacity.”

The Portland network is one of the last of Enron Broadband’s assets to be sold, said Enron spokeswoman Karen Denne.

Enron Broadband cables essentially “ring” the cities of Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro and Tigard. The fiber was installed but not used, Denne said.

Although Enron Broadband still owns the fiber and the rights to use it, Comcast owns the duct and conduit, the result of a settlement hammered out in November 2003. Sale of the fiber network comes with a long-term lease with Comcast, Denne said.

Bids are due Jan. 9, with a Jan. 14 auction in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York City. The sale will be approved Jan. 15, Denne said.

1 | 2 Next Page >>

Facebook	Digg	Del.icio.us
Newsvine	Stumbleupon	Reddit