http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117090418422001834.html
Qwest is cautious to enter fiber market, allowing AT&T and Verizon to set the course. Many believe Qwest doesn't have the financial stability to make the upgrades necessary to be competitive against U-Verse and Fios.
Depending on development area, Qwest's slower adoption of fiber will effect choices of service providers for developers. This also shows the increased spending on fiber for faster and greater content to meet and exceed future demand.
AT&T and Verizon have poured billions of dollars into upgrading their systems to fiber. Verizon is spending $18 billion to connect many of its homes to the fiber-optic network. The company hopes to make FiOS TV service available to 18 million homes out of the 33 million homes in its landline operating area by the end of 2010.
AT&T is spending $4.6 billion to upgrade parts of its network with fiber-optic lines while using software to increase the speed of its network, enabling an Internet TV service called U-Verse. It hopes to make U-Verse available in at least 19 million homes by the end of next year.
Dan Yost, who runs product development and marketing for Qwest, said the company is working to replace copper lines with fiber ones in some markets, though he acknowledged the deployment was "not that extensive" in Qwest's 14-state operating territory.
Qwest has recently sold off assets giving them more financial flexibility to potentially put more dollars toward fiber investment; however for the time being they will still depend on DirecTV for television services and Sprint Nextel for wireless phone services. Most would agree that the push for more bandwidth will force Qwest to invest in upgrades regardless of their financial standing sooner than later.
No comments:
Post a Comment