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Technology Stocks : George Gilder - Forbes ASAP -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SteveG who wrote (701)	9/2/1998 8:58:00 AM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 5853

Yes, Steve... I too would am curious to see what George or anyone else finds out about this position by QWST, as well. It seems incongruous to me that QWST would entertain such a philosophy going forward, even into the near term future, for two principal reasons. First, lambda technologies are now poised to become integral to high-capacity networking in a general way, such as handing off between carriers, and everyday nodal switching and routing, as a means to supplant expensive transport elements in the wide (and even in the local and metropolitan, albeit to a lesser extent, at first) areas. Without DWDM and its associated optical add-drop switching/routing, especially as tunable LASERS become available, these network techniques become near impossible, or very inefficient in comparative terms, thus, they are mandatory in order to remain competitive. Second, QWST's selling off of large bundles of strands to other large interstates and Internet concerns has been profitable for them, or it at least has enabled them to avoid going back to the markets for a large share of their ongoing capital construction requirements. Their selling of dark fiber was a surprise to me at first, but it's worked out for them thus far, as it has for MFNX (who has a different business model, granted) and others. If they continue this form of capitalization for their ongoing construction and buildout purposes, they will dwindle their supply of native glass, somewhat. The remedy for this depletion effect, is, of course, DWDM. Since QWST has made that statement (and I have never had any doubts that you heard exactly that), it's my opinion that someone was talking prematurely, or out of context, or just wanted to sound like an iconoclast at the moment. It happens. My guess would be that they are simply not committed to a particular manufacture or design yet, and they probably figure they have sufficient time left on their young time line to make such a decision concerning a technology (DWDM) that is still in the early stages of maturing. Either way, staying tuned, and best regards, Frank Coluccio