High-speed cable-modem-service provider Road Runner topped
320,000 subscribers during the second quarter, as it boosted its base of affiliate homes
passed.
The company, which totaled about 250,000 subscribers at the
end of March, said it now passes 10.4 million homes, compared with about 8 million in the
first quarter.
New markets that helped to add to the total included
Richmond, Va. The major Texas markets of Houston and San Antonio are expected to launch
during the current quarter.
Road Runner -- which is owned jointly by Time Warner Inc.,
MediaOne Group Inc., Microsoft Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and Advance/Newhouse -- had
180,000 subscribers at the end of 1998.
The second-quarter subscriber figures indicated that the
company's largest cluster was in the Northeast again, with its data and operations center
in Chelmsford, Mass., accounting for nearly 70,000 subscribers in Massachusetts and New
Hampshire.
That figure represented a 40 percent jump over the 50,000
subscribers in the Chelmsford cluster as of March 31.
The company also announced that Trey Smith, an executive
with Road Runner joint-owner Compaq, had been named as its new chief technology officer.
Smith fills the vacancy created when Mario Vecchi left in October to take the post of vice
president of broadband development at online-service provider America Online Inc.
Smith -- who will also hold the title of senior vice
president of engineering and technology -- has been working with Road Runner as Compaq's
representative on the service's technology committee.
Smith was Compaq's vice president of advanced consumer
products, responsible for the launches of the computer maker's digital-appliances business
and the AltaVista search-engine portal.
Before that, he served as Compaq's CTO, developing
technical strategies, policies and standards positions for the digital cable and broadband
businesses, among others.
Road Runner has been fleshing out its top executive ranks
in recent months. The company named three executives to its senior-management team in
June: William Gordon III as chief financial officer, Larry Levine as senior vice president
of corporate development and James Brueneman as deputy general counsel.
Carl Rossetti remains interim CEO, with sources indicating
that Road Runner is unlikely to name a permanent CEO until after the resolution of
AT&T Corp.'s planned buyout of Road Runner partner MediaOne.
Road Runner also unveiled a deal last week to offer the
services of online mortgage lender E-Loan Inc. over its broadband platform.
E-Loan -- which launched its online lending operations in
June 1997 -- will create a co-branded site on Road Runner's "Business Channel"
tailored toward leveraging the service's broadband capabilities to provide such features
as an interactive video that will walk applicants through the loan-application process.
--BW
