status and thus can share in the subsidies granted to rural telephone companies, even though it not an incumbent. Overexpansion Led to More Bankruptcies A number of other companies jumped in to the CAP/CLEC business during the boom, only to spend beyond their means. One of the largest was McLeod USA, based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The company approached the CLEC business aggressively, taking a sizeable market share in several Midwestern states. It built an extensive fiber-optic network; although eventually national in scope, it was The Great Telecom Meltdown especially well developed in Iowa and even crossed the sparsely settled lands of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Idaho. For a time, the company even dabbled in the ILEC business, buying Illinois Consolidated Telephone, a rural carrier with more than 75,000 lines. Analyst reports during the later boom years showed that McLeod USA was probably profitable in its oldest markets, the ones opened in 1996-1997. But its rapid pace of expansion caused its bottom line to remain negative, and when the bottom fell out of the market, there was no more money left to cover its losses. So it too joined the Chapter 11 club in January 2002. It downsized, sold Illinois Consolidated back to the original family that had owned it, and sold its direc- tory business; the reorganized CLEC was finally EBITDA positive. Another CLEC, e.Spire, had a CAP unit called ACSI Network Technolo- gies, which also provided fiber construction services to other companies. It spent the boom years expanding in various cities around the country, but like many others, ran out of cash and met the bankruptcy judge in early 2001. St. Louis- based Xspedius, founded by a veteran of Brooks Fiber (and thus essentially funded by the high price WorldCom paid for Brooks during the boom years) picked up its assets the following year for $68 million, vaulting itself onto the national scene for a meltdown bargain price. Hybrid Fiber-Coax (HFC) Gave Cable Providers an Advantage on "Triple Play" One class of companies was able t