itts, Digital Broad- band, and HarvardNet were racing to overbuild each other. All the while, a handful of smaller local CLECs were also picking central offices in which to offer DSL service, sometimes in conjunction with voice. Yet the incumbent, which was by then adopting the name Verizon, had more customers than all of them put together. So when the dominoes began to fall, they fell fast. Dropping Like Flies On December 6, 2000, HarvardNet announced that it would be exiting the DSL business. It gave its customers only a few weeks' notice, shutting down on January 15. The Web hosting assets were acquired by Allegiance Telecom, a Texas-based CLEC [10]. On December 27, Digital Broadband Communica- tions filed for Chapter 11 protection, also shutting down its network the follow- ing month. Vitts made a last gasp at survival, hoping that it might benefit from having fewer competitors, but it too filed for Chapter 11 on February 7, 2001; its network was shut down by May. Northpoint's exit was a bit more complex. The company had agreed, in August 2000, to be acquired by Verizon for $800 million. Although the two were competitors in some areas, Northpoint had substantial assets in areas where SBC was the ILEC; it promised to provide Verizon with a quick footprint in the territory of its supposed archrival. This was the exit strategy that many CLEC investors had dreamed of. "God made CLECs to get acquired," quoted one ven- dor [11] But it was only a brief engagement, never a marriage. Verizon backed out of the deal in December, citing Northpoint's deteriorating finances. Northpoint filed suit, asking for damages if the acquisition did not go ahead, but Verizon did not change its mind again. "The biggest mistake I made was believing Verizon's top management [12]," said Northpoint CEO Fetter after Northpoint filed for Chapter 11 protection on January 16, 2001. Its network DLECs and ELECs: An Exercise in Oversupply was shut down in March; AT&T acquired the bankruptcy assets but did not operate the DSL network. In July 200