[1st-mile-nm] Qwest CEO on Fiber Services

[Richard Lowenberg]

Here's an exerpt from a new CNET story and interview with Qwest's CEO.
	(FiOS refers to Verizon's fiber to the premises offering.)

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Qwest-Doesnt-See-The-Point-In-FiOS-92195?nocomment=1

Qwest Doesn't See The Point In FiOS
CEO: 'It's too expensive. We don't see the return.'

09:17AM Wednesday Feb 27 2008 by Karl

We're not sure how you turn "we lack the resources, will or vision to do
anything particularly interesting or bold in our uncompetitive service
areas" into a presentation that gets Wall Street excited, but as we
mentioned Monday, Qwest has been trying to do that all week. New CEO
Edward Mueller has been meeting with analysts and the media since Monday,
but judging from this CNET interview, the baby bell boss isn't actually
telling them anything new or particularly interesting. Here's one
edge-of-your-seat excerpt:

CNET:Why doesn't Qwest follow Verizon's lead and just take fiber to the
home?

Mueller: It's too expensive. We don't see the return.

CNET:But Wall Street seems to have looked favorably on Verizon's strategy,
and it's starting to pay off. They seem to have a long-term vision.

Mueller: We don't have the resources.

CNET: Aren't you worried about commoditizing your network by not offering
services like TV?

Mueller: No, that is what we have DirecTV for.

CNET:Yes, but you are relying on another company to offer a service to
your customers. And you are just providing the transport.

Mueller: We like them.

How could anyone not be excited from that exchange? A rehash of the
company's very limited 20Mbps VDSL plans, a vague mention of wireless
broadband aspirations, and the announcement that Qwest would be offering a
"Geek Squad" style tech support service were about as exciting as it got
this week for analysts. In fact the only real news of the week (that Qwest
will likely dump Sprint for Verizon) came from Verizon's CEO, not Qwest's.

We're hearing that Qwest should have some additional FTTH/VDSL deployment
news in the next month or two (specific launch markets, most likely).
Still, one gets the feeling the company is sort of drifting in neutral,
making the minimum effort required and paying off debt until someone comes
along to buy them out.

The complete CNET story is at:
http://www.news.com/A-Qwest-for-survival/2008-1034_3-6232125.html?tag=st.num


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Richard Lowenberg
P.O.Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110,  505-603-5200 cell

1st-Mile Institute
New Mexico Broadband Initiative
www.1st-mile.com
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