In the past couple weeks, there’s been a lot of discussion and debate about which telco strategy will win – Verizon’s FTTH play with FiOS, or AT&T’s FTTN strategy with U-verse. Lost in that debate was this country’s third largest telco, Qwest, who also yields significant influence over the telecom landscape. Qwest is following a similar strategy to AT&T, with one major difference. They are not pursuing an IPTV strategy, and are instead (at least for the time being) leveraging a DirecTV partnership for the video portion of their triple play. Qwest CTO Pieter Poll gave an interview to ZDNet’s Between the Lines blog and offered Qwest’s view of the broadband landscape. Here are some interesting takes from the interview:

• For the time being, Qwest is content with a FTTN strategy, utilizing VDSL2 to the home, and delivering a top end speed of 30-35 Mbps
• Poll is not concerned with DOCSIS 3.0, commenting that the 100 Mbps speeds that are associated with it are “a marketing game,” and will not be the reality in the marketplace
• FTTH is simply unrealistic for Qwest because of the cost associated with retro fitting their extensive buried plant assets – a challenge that Verizon does not face with its extensive aerial plant
• Qwest is moving forward with application development and intends to offer their “Q Home” application platform that will among other things, integrate phone service with instant messaging, email, and click-to-call type services

Qwest has taken their fair share of criticism for appearing to be somewhat slower to move into the future than their other “bell” brethren. They’ve punted on IPTV and have no wireless assets of their own, leading to speculation that they will face long term consequences for not being more aggressive with their strategies. But love them or hate them, at least you know where they stand. They’ve decided to follow a different strategy, and are not ashamed to talk about it. All these predictions of winners and losers are somewhat pointless right now. We’re way too early in the broadband game to figure out who wins. Anyone dismissing one strategy over the other is simply speculating. Qwest’s strategy adds some diversity to the mix. They’ll all be worth observing.

Qwest released 2Q08 numbers today and the results aren’t thrilling. Like most local telcos, Qwest is losing access lines and broadband growth is slowing significantly. Unlike it’s “baby bell” brethren, Qwest does not have its own wireless assets to rescue the day. Here’s a snapshot at some of the numbers:

• Lost 235K (2.8%) total switched access lines from 1Q08 and 799K (8.8%) from 2Q07
• Only gained 31K new broadband customers from 1Q08, or 1.14% and 327K over 2Q07, or 13.6%
• Total revenue of $3.8 billion for 2Q08 is down 2.3% from 2Q07, and among mass markets, business, and wholesale, the business segment is the only one that achieved growth (4.6%) over 2Q07

The results aren’t too uncommon from Verizon and AT&T results, with the exception of the missing aforementioned growth engine of wireless. Qwest made some strategic decision recently, where they are pursuing resale strategies for both wireless and video. It’s too early to determine whether those moves are the right ones. We’ll have to watch this play out over multiple quarters and years to come to see if reselling (rather than building one’s own means) the two growth engines of wireless and video makes long term sense. We may find out that Qwest has the last laugh because they're able to extract decent enough commission revenue to justify not investing the billions necessary to offer those services themselves. Maybe it makes sense to get a buck or two per DirecTV and Verizon Wireless resale customer per month than to build up billions in debt building your own capacity in the hopes that your ROI will eventually pay off. But of course, maybe it doesn’t. Maybe Qwest will find themselves watching on the sidelines, unable to act, as their competitors leverage their more robust networks for more value, revenue, and margin, and cherry pick Qwest’s best customers. We should all thank Qwest, because their alternative approach gives our industry some variety relative to long term strategies. Stay tuned.

Qwest officially launched their previously announced wireless resale business, utilizing the Verizon Wireless network. According to Qwest’s press release, “…Qwest customers can now purchase Verizon Wireless products and services, including handsets, smartphones and BlackBerry devices, as well as high-speed wireless broadband services for e-mail, Internet access and multimedia services, such as mobile music and video.” Qwest will be contacting existing Qwest Wireless customers to offer incentives to switch services from their previous resale partner, Sprint, to Verizon Wireless.

Qwest recently told the FCC that there is plenty of competition in several of its major markets, so the FCC should let Qwest tell their competitors who want continued wholesale access to their last mile network to “go fly a kite.” Forgive my paraphrasing Qwest. The FCC respectfully denied the request. Qwest argued that sufficient competition existed from CLECs, cable companies, and wireless providers to warrant suspension of unbundling requirements for local loops and transport facilities. Qwest was hoping to repeat the forbearance relief (albeit partially) it received for Omaha, Nebraska in 2005 for its key markets of Denver, Phoenix, Minneapolis, and Seattle. The FCC disagreed, saying “…we find that the record evidence does not satisfy the section 10 forbearance standard with respect to any of the forbearance Qwest seeks, and, accordingly, we deny the requested relief in the four MSAs.” Ouch.

AT&T, Qwest, and Verizon are collaborating with WhiteFence Inc. to promote Movearoo.com. Movearoo.com is a website that helps coordinate the task everyone loves to hate - moving. Through this telco partnership, Movearoo.com will feature telecom services from the participating companies. The three telcos are joining this effort to make these "moves, adds, and changes" exclusive to them. Competing services from cable companies and VoIP providers will not be featured on Movearoo.com. Customers can also arrange the transfer of other telco affiliated services including video. Both U-Verse and FiOS will be featured, but so will DBS/telco partnerships with DirecTV.

It’s an interesting development, in that large telcos have been slower to collaborate with each other on competitive issues, than say the cable industry. The independent telco industry has a rich legacy of cooperation and collaboration, fueled more by trying to achieve scale than necessarily confronting competition. I suspect we’ll see more competition fueled collaboration among all telecom players as the competitive landscape continues to heat up. One interesting caveat to this – I wonder who’s service will be recommended through Movearoo.com in suburban Dallas when/if Verizon’s FiOS service actively competes with AT&T U-Verse?

Qwest announced the expansion of their Qwest Metro Optical Ethernet (QMOE) service, which is now available in 32 markets. QMOE allows Qwest customers to send and receive large-bandwidth and time-sensitive data across multiple locations. It combines Ethernet and optical technologies to offer up more than 20 network speeds ranging from 5Mbps to 1 Gigabit per second, with quality of service (QoS).

The idea of local governments and/or utility districts building broadband networks is still very much in play, but evolving. The movement has taken some “black eyes” lately, particularly the wireless focused ones. High profile failures of municipal wireless networks, many of whom were partnered with Earthlink, have seen a lot of press and analyst coverage lately. High profile FTTH municipal networks including, Project Utopia and iProvo, have also seen their fair share of troubles. But that’s not stopping others from moving forward. One example is PowelLink in Powel, Wyoming, a city of 5,500 residents. PowelLink is a partnership between the city of Powel, TCT West, and U.S. MetroNets. TCT West is a local independent telephone company in Wyoming and U.S. MetroNets is a facilitator of municipal telecom network construction and operation. Under this model, the construction of the network is privately financed, which was arranged by U.S. MetroNets, and will be professionally operated by TCT, who has previous experience in managing FTTH networks. On the surface, it looks like a good partnership. But don’t tell that to Qwest and Bresnan Communications, the respective incumbent telecom and cable operators. They’re obviously not happy with the competition such a network will bring and object to the public role in it. This will be one to watch in the coming months and years.

Qwest is announcing a new five year wireless resale arrangement with Verizon Wireless. Qwest was previously partnered with Sprint for a similar wireless deal, which obviously didn’t work out. Qwest CEO Ed Mueller announced early on in his tenure that he was unhappy with the current Sprint deal. The terms of the agreement are somewhat sketchy, but here are some interesting tidbits:

• Qwest customers will have access to the full line of Verizon Wireless handsets, smartphones and BlackBerry devices, as well as high-speed broadband wireless services for e-mail, Internet access and multimedia services
• Residential customers will be able to choose “wireless only” and be billed directly by Verizon Wireless, or include Verizon Wireless service as part of a Qwest bundle with their home phone, Internet and video services, and receive one bill from Qwest for all services
• Once billing systems are coordinated, residential customers will be able to elect to have their Verizon Wireless service charges included on their Qwest bill

Wireless has been a crutch for Qwest, and resale agreements, while not being ideal, provide the best remedy when nothing else is available. Qwest appears to be warm to resale arrangements. They’ve very publicly said they would rather resell DirecTV than build their own triple play network. Resale seems to be there mid-term, and maybe long-term, strategy for wireless as well. Maybe Verizon offered them a better deal than Sprint. Maybe Qwest sees Sprint as the Titanic and didn’t want to get caught on the top deck listening to the string quartet band while sinking with them. Qwest obviously needs a wireless play to remain competitive. Time will tell if this is the right move. The reality suggests, it might have been their only move.

Qwest is apparently quietly rolling out its 20 Mbps broadband service in select markets. BroadbandReports.com is reporting that the new broadband tier is being marketed on Qwest’s website, and also includes a somewhat slower 12 Mbps tier as well. The 20 Mbps broadband tier is priced at $105/month, or $130/month when bundled with a landline. The 12 Mbps tier is priced at $52/month, or $77/month when bundled with a landline.

The new Qwest broadband tiers are a part of Qwest’s $300 million FTTN network upgrade. It’s a far cry from the billions that their larger telco brethren are spending to become triple play capable. Qwest maintains that their partnership with DirecTV is the best triple play path to pursue. They intend to deliver these new broadband tiers to 1.5 million customers by 2010.

Qwest announced the launch of qZone, a digital content store with more than 1,400 PC games and software applications available to Qwest broadband subscribers. Games available at qZone include 18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul, Bejeweled 2 Deluxe and Mystery Case Files. In addition to games, qZone also offers software applications such as Web page development software, a DVD player with creator functions, popular foreign-language learning tools and other educational software. “At Qwest, qZone marks the beginning of our convergent content capabilities, which we see as the next generation of bundling,” said Ken Rambo, product director at Qwest.