No Gold Mine In Sewers

Few telecom start-ups can match the press attention devoted to CityNet, the Maryland company that sends robots through sewers to lay fiber-optic cable to buildings. The media loved the company and its novel solution to the last-mile problem, and governments were intrigued by the idea of getting their cities connected without tearing up the streets. Venture capitalists loved CityNet, too, investing $275 million. Alas, even all that money, goodwill and attention wasn't enough to escape a retrenchment.

WashTech reports that CityNet is laying off an unspecified number of its 80 employees and shelving its ambitions to build sewer-borne networks in 20 cities. Instead, the company will focus on completing projects in Los Angeles and Indianapolis and selling services over its existing network in Albuquerque.

You can't be surprised, given the state of telecom. But on another level, it was hard not to root for CityNet, which seemed to have built a better mousetrap. The current market is throttling the good ideas as well as the not so brilliant ones.