This trend seemed the most common in the bone yard of competitive service providers, where names seemed to disappear on almost a daily basis-Rhythms NetConnections, Northpoint, Metricom-at least until Covad Communications' successful exit from bankruptcy.

Covad's ability to expand service by slightly lowering its sights may be an advance indicator of a breed of resurrected carrier that can bring the old meaning back to Chapter 11. Here in the Denver area, high-flying ICG Communications was one of the first to crash and burn, with a bankruptcy filing in November 2000. Few expected it to recover from a debt burden approaching $3 billion. Yet two years later, ICG is back, recapitalized. The head count is one-third as big as the 3,000 that worked for ICG in 2000, but the company has a viable plan for providing corporate data services in multiple markets.

The same trend might be gracing the metropolitan Ethernet market. While many specialists in public Ethernet transport emerged in 2000, few lasted long, as Telseon was absorbed into OnFiber and Yipes headed for bankruptcy court. But Jay Gill, director of product management at the new Yipes, said the company was refinanced in July with a humbler plan to stick to 10 major cities, providing a mix of local high-speed access-loop services, Layer 2 metropolitan-area network services and even point-to-point Ethernet links nationwide. If Yipes can pull this off the second time around, it could prove the viability of treating Ethernet as a public service.

Still in uncertain territory is XO Communications Inc., the former NextLink, bankrolled in its early days by Craig McCaw. By trying to be both interexchange carrier and Internet service provider at the same time, XO fell victim to the overbuild all too common in 1998-2000, and it filed for bankruptcy in June. The company released two investors from a planned rescue package on Oct. 14. Nevertheless, customers are treating XO as a potential survivor, and the Chapter 11 plan may lead to a legitimate reorganization.

We may be a long way from a real upturn, but the fact that some broadband carriers are emerging successfully from bankruptcy could be taken as a sign that the worst days have passed.