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Strategies & Market Trends : Cents and Sensibility - Kimberly and Friends' Consortium -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jane4IceCream who wrote (40437)	12/8/1999 12:07:00 AM
From: 2MAR$	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108040

(REUTERS) Qwest to expand high-speed network into Canada NEW YORK, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Qwest Communications International Inc., the No. 4 U.S. long-distance telephone company, on Wednesday said it would expand its high-speed fiber optic communications network into Canada to serve customers in major markets such as Monteal, Toronto and Vancouver. Qwest's <QWST.O> planned 4,300-mile (2,687 km) expansion would give it a North American network that stretches more than 24,500 miles (15,312 km) through Canada, the United States and Mexico. The Canadian facilities will connect with Qwest's U.S. broadband network in Seattle, Minneapolis and Buffalo, New York. The new network will give Qwest greater capacity and more routing flexibility to transmit voice and data services for all of its North American customers. Qwest will use the Canadian network to provide Internet services, including dedicated access, Web site hosting, and electronic commerce services. Denver-based Qwest said it will target Canadian commercial and corporate customers initially, but it may eventually explore partnerships or joint venture opportunities to reach the consumer market. Qwest plans to begin offering services over the new network in the first quarter of next year. The company does not yet have any clients signed up to use the network, but "we've had some (companies) who approached us and basically endorsed the strategy and said if we would go to Canada, they'd certainly stand as willing customers," Lew Wilks, Qwest's president of Internet and multimedia markets said in a telephone interview. Qwest, which plans to acquire local telephone company U S West Inc. <USW.N>, has been aggressively expanding its product portfolio and geographic reach. Wilks said Asia-Pacific is its "logical next step" for its geographic expansion and a move would be made "sooner rather than later." Qwest has a pan-European venture with KPN Telecom NV <KPN.N>, the Dutch telecommunications company, to build and operate a high-capacity network that will span 9,100 miles (5,688 km) when completed in 2001. (( Jessica Hall, New York newsroom 212-859-1729)) REUTERS * end of story *