Qwest's CEO Says Home Broadband Up For Grabs
(10/ 8/99; 1:00 PM EST)
By Mo Krochmal, TechWeb
The cable industry has not won the battle to provide broadband access to the home, said Joseph Nacchio, the chairman of a large carrier.
"The public thinks cable has won, but that's only because the cable industry has bigger public relations," said Nacchio of Denver-based
communications carrier Qwest in his Internet World keynote address on Friday. "Cable and the Bells will both be around; no one has the
knockout punch."
The ability to deliver broadband connectivity to American homes is seen as a critical step in the evolution of business on the Internet and a
critical technological hurdle. Each industry is just beginning to roll out services that let homes utilize bandwidth similar to what is available
commercially -- but less expensively.
The cable industry is betting on the cable infrastructure used to deliver television, while the telephone industry -- save AT&T, which has
hedged its bets with the purchase of broadband carrier and content company ExciteAtHome -- is installing DSL over the copper wires that reach
the home -- the local loop.
"It's still up for grabs," Nacchio said. "Watch VDSL."
The technology of VDSL connects customers with the fiber-optic lines and has the capacity for feeding apartment complexes or offices, while
still using existing copper wire infrastructure.
"If you can get fiber within 4,000 feet of the home, you can drive 56-megabit connectivity and everyone can get on at 7 p.m.," he said. "It's a
time-to-market challenge."
That is an issue that Sol Trujillo, the chairman of U S West will handle, Nacchio said. Qwest signed an agreement this summer to acquire the
Denver-based RBOC for stock worth $35 billion. The deal is pending a shareholders vote on Nov. 2.
"The U S West deal is about growth," Nacchio said. "It is about controlling the biggest DSL provider and taking their operations and
infrastructure and porting it outside their area. We wanted to blow it apart and move the world to broadband."
Nacchio said he had no idea about speculation that BellSouth, another RBOC, would buy Qwest.
"I would be the last one to know," he said. "The next four weeks will be interesting."
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