[1st-mile-nm] Qwest Stimulus Funding Request

[Richard Lowenberg]

New Mexico Business Weekly - January 8, 2009

http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2009/01/05/daily42.html

Qwest seeks stimulus dollars for broadband


Qwest Communications International Inc. sent a letter to the transition team of
President-elect Barack Obama on Thursday asking the federal government to use
some of its planned economic stimulus spending to increase high-speed Internet
access in unserved areas.

The Denver-based telecom mailed the four-page proposal to the transition team
and to Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter.

In it, the company proposes that the government make an unspecified amount money
available to states, which would request bids from companies proposing to
achieve 95 percent statewide availability of broadband that?s
7-megabits-per-second or faster.

Chuck Ward, Qwest?s Colorado president, helped formulate aspects of the
proposal and said he?s optimistic broadband expansion will be included in the
Obama administration?s proposed infrastructure spending.

?It certainly satisfies the stimulus program?s objective, and that?s
putting people to work,? Ward said.

Qwest doesn?t know how much money its proposal would require, because no one
knows exactly what areas various private broadband service providers fail to
reach, Ward said.

The proposal?s cost would run into the billions of dollars, at a minimum,
however.

Qwest alone spent $300 million in 2008 upgrading its existing broadband
infrastructure in 23 cities to make its network there capable of offering
between 7 mbps or 20 mbps download speeds.

Building a new fiber optic network to unserved areas nationwide, many of them
remote, is far more costly given the greater distances.

Beyond the creation of thousands of new jobs and helping protect existing
telecommunications employment, Qwest argues, such spending would help close the
glaring technology gap between urban and rural parts of America.

?...while many urban areas have multiple broadband service providers,
competitive prices, and speeds in excess of 7 Mbps, many rural areas lack even
the most basic broadband offerings,? Qwest?s letter said.

The company considers 7 Mbps speed to be the lowest at which movie and song
downloading is quick enough to satisfy consumers and fast enough for to handle
other online video applications.

Greg Avery of the Denver Business Journal, an affiliated publication,
contributed this report.

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-- 
Richard Lowenberg
1st-Mile Institute
P.O. Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504
505-989-9110;   505-603-5200 cell
rl at 1st-mile.com  www.1st-mile.com

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