Qwest: $1 Billion Would Provide 95% DSL Coverage – Carrier continues to complain about $7 billion plan…

24 Feb 2009

Qwest last week claimed that it would cost them billion to get 7 Mbps broadband service available to 95% percent of its current footprint — assuming taxpayers are willing to foot the bill. That’s of course first-generation DSL, providing even deployment of their 12Mbps & 20Mbps ADSL2+ service would cost substantially more. Qwest has been lobbying a long time for a stimulus plan that would involve money being doled out to the States, who would then give the money to carriers willing to deploy 7Mbps to 95% of each State — with industry-backed Connected Nation likely checking the math. The AP makes it clear Qwest is gunning for Federal funds, and is unhappy with the current billion plan:

Larry Sarjeant, vice president of legislative affairs at Qwest Communications International Inc., said the Denver-based phone company could use billion to expand Internet access to 2 million households and small businesses in 14 Western states, many of them thinly populated. Because Qwest is unlikely to get that large a share of the funds, and the number of households that sign up for service will be smaller still, the net effect would be at most a few hundred thousand new Internet subscribers. Qwest added 236,000 broadband subscribers on its own last year.

As we’ve mentioned previously, Qwest’s sudden concern about even broadband coverage is a little disingenuous, given they have a history of spending millions of dollars to crush town and city efforts to wire themselves when nobody else would. Of course since this initial billion package is only the opening salvo in the Obama broadband plan — Qwest may get their money down the line.
read comment(s)

Link to the original article…