ABI Research: Qwest Goes Deeper with Deep Fiber.

OYSTER BAY, N.Y. -- Qwest Communications announced last week that it had started the deployment of a fiber-based residential network in a community outside Denver, Colorado. Coupled with two prior deep-fiber-community deployments, this initiative appears to put Qwest on track to join Verizon and SBC (and to a lesser degree, BellSouth) in the FTTX club. These initial deep-fiber deployments may be an effort by Qwest to catch up to its competitors in building out a network to support high-bandwidth services, including video.

Verizon and SBC have continued aggressive deployment of their fiber build-outs, and BellSouth has sustained its slower-paced rollout of fiber to selected neighborhoods. According to Michael Arden, ABI Research's principal analyst of broadband and residential entertainment technologies, whether Qwest will continue to roll out fiber to the end user or will take a "wait-and-see" approach remains to be seen. "Nevertheless," he says, "Qwest's announcement reinforces the argument that fiber to the end-user is likely to be the best long-term solution for providing high-bandwidth services."

A recent ABI Research study, "Fiber to the Premises", focuses on the FTTX market, first looking at the technology issues involved with FTTX platforms and then assessing the market in terms of subscribers, network builds, equipment market, per-subscriber costs, and the services that drive adoption.

Arden continues, "Qwest's FTTX rollout illustrates its awareness that it must start developing some sort of solution to compete with Verizon and SBC. My guess is that they'll see what happens with this initiative and will then decide in another year or so if they want a more aggressive rollout. At this point, they're so late to the game that they may as well wait."

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations that support annual research programs, quarterly intelligence services and market reports in wireless, automotive, semiconductors, broadband, and energy. Their market research products can be found on the Web at www.abiresearch.com, or by calling 516.624.2500.