Back from bankruptcy, telecom is in for a fight

Peter D. Aquino took over in late December as chief executive of telecommunications upstart RCN Corp., which provides cable television, Internet, and phone service in parts of the Boston region and six other US metropolitan areas. RCN had just emerged from a $2 billion, eight-month bankruptcy reorganization, and within days giant Verizon Communications Inc. -- taking dead aim at RCN and Comcast Corp. -- unveiled plans to build a powerful new fiber-optic network that can deliver cable TV in the Boston area. Aquino, 43, a former Bell Atlantic executive and broadband entrepreneur in Venezuela, spoke with Globe reporter Peter J. Howe.

Q: RCN's pitch has been you're ''the little guy" battling Comcast. Now you're at war with Verizon, too, and both will be selling your phone-Internet-TV bundle. Are you sure you want this job?

A: Our best defense -- and I know it's a cliche -- is definitely offense. We are competing with Verizon. We are going after Comcast. I don't think it's the opposite. I give them high marks for trying to deliver services, but in many ways I see that as just catching up to us. We built a brand-new platform, state of the art, out of the gate. They are trying to rebuild their networks, overlay fiber, all with the mind-set of trying to catch up to where we are.

Q: Verizon's starting to sell 30-megabit-per-second Internet access in some areas, triple what you can do. How do you keep up?

A: By the time they get those systems deployed, I don't even know what speed we'll be at then, but our technology is such and our platform is such that we have the opportunity to go from 10 to 20 to whatever it's going to be.

Whatever you can push out to a customer, we're already there. The things that we can do on the Internet or through our TV set or through our phone are just going to be so different three years from now, whether you have mobile video or you're watching clips on your computer or your computer is talking to your TV and you can arrange your own lineup through the TV.

One of the things we're totally focused on is how to take very complicated technology and make it user-friendly.

Q: Is RCN among those ''triple play" phone-Internet-TV providers thinking of going quadruple with wireless?

A: Wireless technology is evolving such that whether it's WiFi or we do a deal with a cellular carrier, there's a lot of different options available to us. Strategically, we're looking at all of our options. I'm really excited about the potential. We want to be careful that we're integrating whatever new products we're offering into our network, not having a hodgepodge of technologies.

Q: How about low-priced Internet phone service, or voice over Internet protocol?

A: Voice over IP is still catching up as technology. But we're going to be on the forefront of whatever technology makes sense. For a customer who wants phone service, it could be one that's used as a primary line that has high reliability. Or it could be a [discount] voice over IP service.

Q: Now that Chapter 11 cleared out over $1 billion of your debt, would RCN get back into the construction business and wire towns where you have unbuilt cable franchises, like Marlborough, Saugus, Quincy, and Weymouth?

A: We came out of bankruptcy very strong financially. We want to make the best investments that we can. As many ways as we can grow, we're looking at all aspects -- acquisition, we could expand through additional homes passed by our network.

The other gem in our repertoire is the commercial business. Our fiber-optic passes, in the metropolitan areas, many, many commercial buildings. If I'm passing Morgan Stanley, I would really like to get into that building and provide them with high-speed data or private-line services. We're going to start focusing on that.