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

To: MangoBoy who wrote (1830)	7/20/1998 10:47:00 PM
From: Bill Cooper	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6846

Nacchio: Mergers are Doomed by Jennifer Sullivan 6:50pm 20.Jul.98.PDT DANA POINT, California -- All of the recent mega mergers between the old granddad telecommunications companies -- like MCI and Worldcom and AT&T and TCI -- are for naught, according to Joe Nacchio, CEO of Qwest Communications. "It will all end up in antitrust cases," Nacchio said Monday at the Spotlight '98 Conference in Dana Point, California. "These oligopolies ... getting together are kidding themselves." Nacchio said the established companies are buying each other up to protect themselves from aggressive upstarts, like Qwest (QWST). The shopping spree would help the established companies protect their cash flows by controlling even bigger chunks of the telecommunications markets, he proposed. He said companies like AT&T were hiding behind a "tech angle" -- citing plans to offer more services to consumers -- to convince regulators to allow them to bulk up. He pooh-poohed the AT&T plan to buy TCI. "In the next 18 months, the deal won't even get regulatory approval." Nacchio was addressing fellow executives, analysts, and journalists at Spotlight, a conference on new business models on the Internet. Nacchio spun his company as the young upstart, founded in 1988, that will topple the giant phone companies and realize an entirely new telecom business model. Qwest is building a fiber-optic telecommunications network based on Internet telephony technology, the same technology that shuffles email around the Internet. Because the network would theoretically use resources far more efficiently, Qwest would be able to offer long-distance voice calls and data services far cheaper than traditional rivals. Qwest's acquisition of LCI Communications last fall made it the fourth-largest long-distance carrier. Nacchio said once big bandwidth becomes available, the traditional way of making money in telecommunications will be scrapped. "When voice is merely an application, you'll see pricing changes," he said. "You'll see the industry change, you'll see vertically integrated companies ... disintegrating." Instead of paying for services based on distances, customers would pay for the amount of bandwidth they want, between which points, and the quality. Nacchio said he wasn't sure exactly how customers would use high-bandwidth networks. Qwest's plan is to provide the infrastructure for which designers would innovate services. "We're counting on entrepreneurs to say, 'How would I design an application if bandwidth was not a constraint?'" he said. "We are about to flip the model. We will be an enabling mechanism." Separately, Nacchio said Qwest's stock is "terribly undervalued" relative to the Yahoos of the investment world. But he predicted continuing strong interest in Internet stocks, like Qwest. "The Internet is breaking down the cartel," he said.

To: MangoBoy who wrote (1830)	7/22/1998 9:58:00 AM
From: MangoBoy	Respond to of 6846

[Frontier Extends Network into Southeast Through Agreement With Williams] Expansion Connects 20 More Cities to Frontier Network; Anchor Tenant for Williams Network in Southeast ROCHESTER, N.Y., and TULSA, Okla., July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Frontier Corporation (NYSE:FRO) and Williams (NYSE:WMB) today jointly announced that Frontier is expanding its optronics network nearly 3,000 route miles in the southeast United States. Williams is providing Frontier with multiple fiber-optic routes connecting three fully-redundant fiber rings through Houston, Atlanta, Tampa and Miami, in a $68 million deal. This is among the largest in a series of transactions in which Williams has leveraged capacity on its rapidly-expanding fiber network to reduce capital costs and implement its own network expansion. Both companies plan to release quarterly earnings today. The two companies called the agreement mutually beneficial, since each addresses different market segments. Frontier's target markets are small to medium-sized businesses and carrier customers with high-bandwidth requirements. Williams is the only broadband network with an exclusively wholesale strategy; its customers include regional Bell operating companies, long distance service providers, interexchange carriers, local exchange carriers, internet service providers and utilities. "Since we are building our network with our customers' needs in mind, we looked for a network expansion strategy that would fit those requirements," said Joseph P. Clayton, president and chief executive officer of Frontier. "Williams provided us with a solution that made good economic sense, added additional routes for reliability, and provided customers in the southeast quicker access to our optronics network. We also agreed to exchange capacity and work cooperatively with Williams where it is cost-effective and complements our respective networks." Frontier's base 13,000 mile 24-strand national fiber network is now scheduled for completion in early 1999. An additional 1,600 miles of OC-48 capacity in the northwest U.S. will come on-line before year-end. With these southeast rings, Frontier's network will become an 18,000-mile system connecting 120 cities in an 11-ring design by year-end 1999. "Frontier is putting together one of the most reliable, scaleable, robust and far-reaching next-generation networks in the industry today," said Clayton. "The additional fiber rings in the southeast provide us with facilities touching key business hubs. Our goal is to be the preferred network backbone supplier to heavy-lifting bandwidth users, such as ISPs and data-intensive or Web-centric businesses. This additional capacity will allow us to extend the reach of our ATM and IP solutions to a broader base of those customers." As part of its optronics network, Frontier will utilize state-of-the-art electronics and DWDM (dense wave division multiplexing) equipment. DWDM optimizes the capacity and today can turn each individual fiber strand into multiple "virtual" fibers. Howard E. Janzen, president and chief executive officer of Williams Communications, noted, "The agreement between Williams and Frontier is the first step in what we hope is a long-term strategic relationship between our two companies. Customers such as Frontier are key to expanding our wholesale network and reducing our capital costs. We are pleased to offer Frontier the most cost effective solution for a reliable, secure, leading-edge network in the southeast. This transaction, and others like it, capitalize on Williams' core competency in broadband network construction." The Williams network will expand to 18,000 miles by the end of 1998 and to 32,000 miles connecting 100 cities by the end of 2001. Williams was the first carrier to introduce ATM technology as the core transmission platform, using OC-192 transport systems with DWDM to deliver up to 160 gigabits per second in 16 waves on a single fiber. A minimum of 96 fibers is installed in every build, with multiple conduits -- one now and two for future fiber requirements. A map of Frontier's network, including the new southeast segments, is available in the company's website at frontiercorp.com. Information about Williams' present and planned network and a system map can be found at willtales.com.