New York -- Insight Communications Co. Inc. said last week
that it signed an affiliation contract to offer the Road Runner high-speed-data service in
Columbus, Ohio.
Insight said it would start offering Road Runner in
selected neighborhoods in the Columbus service area soon. Road Runner is already up and
running on Time Warner Cable in Columbus, and the service claims 25,000 subscribers in
central Ohio.
Insight executive vice president Kim Kelly said last week
that the selection wasn't as surprising as it might seem for a cable operator that is
already affiliated with Excite@Home Corp.
She said the company had previously informed investors that
it expected to affiliate with Road Runner in Columbus because of its existing local
presence, adding that Insight's affiliation contract with Excite@Home specifically carved
out Columbus for that reason.
Kelly said Insight is negotiating with a third company to
handle such tasks as billing because the MSO didn't want to foot the expense of a
single-bill platform for a single system.
Insight has 85,000 Columbus subscribers, which the company
bought from Coaxial Communications in 1998.
The Insight addition brings Road Runner's footprint in the
area up to 550,000 homes passed. Insight said it would start offering Road Runner node by
node, completing the rollout in 2001.
Insight's rebuilt, 870-megahertz Columbus system is
deploying a 200-channel "Insight Digital Gateway" platform, including Source
Media Inc.'s "LocalSource" local-content service and Diva Systems Corp.'s
"OnSet" video-on-demand service.
