hence my statement of; how many years does it take of saved opex to pay off the capex..... if it's 100, then no, it certainly isn't cheaper to buy new, if it's 1, then sure it makes sense. Where in between fiber falls, it isn't clear.
And that's assuming you can actually achieve savings in opex.
If everyone is on overtime, then yes, they can just stop paying overtime. But if not, then can they furlough people or put them on reduced hours? Or do they have a fixed personnel expense that is unrelated to how much maintenance needs to be done?
The wireline sides of AT&T and Verizon are unionized. How are the contracts written?
