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Technology Stocks : Qwest Communications (Q) (formerly QWST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MangoBoy who wrote (838)	2/20/1998 6:31:00 AM
From: Shibumi	Respond to of 6846

Subject: Nature of physical cabling Originally I wrote: >>In this month's _Wired_ there is a page on Qwest. What they say is that there are actually two conduits that are laid whenever Qwest is laying cable -- and that one of those conduits is empty in order to handle upgrading to next generation technology quickly.<< You replied: >half-true. there is a second conduit but it's for expansion, not upgrades. the conduits were designed so that fiber could be added or upgraded without having to redig.< Thanks for the note -- since you have a better understanding than the magazine seemed to have, let me ask you a question. How difficult is it to upgrade the wires in an existing conduit versus adding wires in an empty conduit? The best answer would be both quantitative (e.g., the difference is $/mile) and qualitative (e.g., in order to lay new wires in a new conduit you simply push them in and add equipment at the nodes versus having to replace both the existing wire and the existing equipment) -- however, beggars can't be choosers and at this point I'll take any answer you might have.