nder its original ownership, much longer. Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN, or sometimes known as MMFN) was founded as National Fiber Network in New York in 1993. Metromedia, the corporate umbrella of tycoon John Kluge, bought it in 1997. Its plan was to lay five million miles of fiber and provide dark fiber to bandwidth-hungry customers, mostly other carriers. But its expansion out of its home market did not really begin until after the Telecom Act was passed in 1996. Its boom- era mentality was explained in this 1999 quote. "Howard Finkelstein, MMFN's president, explains that a DS3 from the telco costs $3,000 a month, and a The Great Telecom Meltdown comparable MMFN fiber costs about $5,000. But the fiber can be lit at OC-12-14 times faster than DS3-for $500 more per month (assuming 10- year depreciation). This works out to about $400 per DS3 per month" [3]. True enough-undiscounted special access DS3 rates have remained at that level, but how many subscriber locations really need more than one? Most large Web hosting operations are at collocation centers, not city office buildings. This may look obvious now, but in 1999, investors simply expected demand every- where to grow to dark-fiber levels. And by 1999, the Telecom Act's unbundling requirement finally made ILEC dark fiber available to CLECs at much lower rates. These were not the only CAPs, of course; they were just among the largest. After the Telecom Act, many more CAP/CLECs popped up. But after the Tele- com Act, they were not usually called CAPs-access was only part of the local service package that CLECs were able to offer. Laying fiber in the ground was just the most expensive way to become a CLEC. Overbuilding Each Other in Top Markets As the boom took hold in the mid-1990s, and full-scale local telecommunica- tions competition loomed on the horizon, CAPs sought to position them- selves by being in all of the top locations. This led to an expensive mess, as the carriers followed each other in cutting trenches in streets in top cities around the countr