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Qwest Bleeds DSL, But Sees VDSL User Spike
Apparently network upgrades are important after all...
Many Wall Street analysts have complained about network upgrades of any kind, given they're usually in the business of immediate returns -- not establishing long-term survivability for the companies invested in. Though as you watch telcos lose legacy DSL customers in droves to faster cable in markets they didn't upgrade, you wonder just what would have happened if they listened to Wall Street's advice. Verizon lost 165,000 DSL customers, but helped counter losses with FiOS. AT&T lost 88,000 DSL users but countered losses with U-Verse gains. Following in AT&T and Verizon's footsteps but on a smaller scale, Qwest's quarterly earnings indicate the company lost 52,000 DSL subscribers -- but gained 92,000 FTTN customers -- despite a relatively timid VDSL deployment. Qwest continued to bleed legacy landline service to the tune of 11%, and as you'll recall they're about to be acquired by CenturyLink in a deal worth around $22.5 billion.
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Mr Matt
join:2008-01-29
Eustis, FL

Mr Matt

Member

CenturyLink and the Titanic.

Since I am a CenturyLink customer I hope they are not hooking their Dinghy to the Titanic.

Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

Transmaster

Member

Re: CenturyLink and the Titanic.

said by Mr Matt:

Since I am a CenturyLink customer I hope they are not hooking their Dinghy to the Titanic.
Not to worry a turd floats, most of the time anyway, it just does not do much

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

Re: CenturyLink and the Titanic.

said by Transmaster:
said by Mr Matt:

Since I am a CenturyLink customer I hope they are not hooking their Dinghy to the Titanic.
Not to worry a turd floats, most of the time anyway, it just does not do much
Couldn't have described qwest any better myself.
viperlmw
Premium Member
join:2005-01-25

viperlmw to Mr Matt

Premium Member

to Mr Matt
I don't believe Qwest needs to be viewed as the Titanic. Their subscriber counts are stabilizing, their debt is shrinking, their financial's are improving and their enterprise/government services division is expanding.

That last bit, by the way, is one of the big reasons that this merger is happening. CenturyLink does not have any real presence in enterprise/government markets. They are almost exclusively mass markets (residential/small business). As an RBOC, Qwest has a Business Markets group and a Government Markets group (that last one is qualified for Networx), both of which are growing.

CenturyLink is innovating in one area, that's ip video. However, those deployments are small, and the future is cloudy. My personal view is that after the merger, these folks need to figure out how to get into wireless/cellular. But for now, the future of the combined company is kinda bright (shades not required).
rahvin112
join:2002-05-24
Sandy, UT

rahvin112

Member

Re: CenturyLink and the Titanic.

said by viperlmw:

I don't believe Qwest needs to be viewed as the Titanic. Their subscriber counts are stabilizing, their debt is shrinking, their financial's are improving and their enterprise/government services division is expanding.
The last GSO contract I saw excluded completely Qwest, in fact they were the only telco NOT selected. Given that this bars them from all Federal contracts I fail to see how that means expanding government contracts. That is unless you are counting local libraries and governments in their area using subsidized services as government contracts as the local ILEC always gets those contracts.
hottboiinnc4
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH

hottboiinnc4

Member

Re: CenturyLink and the Titanic.

they can still bid for local and state contracts. and they were only excluded due to they refused to give up data to the NSA.

And if they sell to local gov't including Libraries that's more USF money they get. The same way VZ gets a lot of their $$$.
viperlmw
Premium Member
join:2005-01-25

viperlmw to rahvin112

Premium Member

to rahvin112
said by rahvin112:

said by viperlmw:

I don't believe Qwest needs to be viewed as the Titanic. Their subscriber counts are stabilizing, their debt is shrinking, their financial's are improving and their enterprise/government services division is expanding.
The last GSO contract I saw excluded completely Qwest, in fact they were the only telco NOT selected. Given that this bars them from all Federal contracts I fail to see how that means expanding government contracts. That is unless you are counting local libraries and governments in their area using subsidized services as government contracts as the local ILEC always gets those contracts.
Is this something different than what you are referring to?
ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 16, 2010 – The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has provided Qwest Government Services, a part of Qwest Communications (NYSE: Q), Government-wide authority to operate for its Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Service (MTIPS). »news.qwest.com/MTIPSATO
Sarusan
join:2010-08-30
Seattle, WA

Sarusan to Mr Matt

Member

to Mr Matt
Really the problem with this merger is the fact that you have 2 telcos that both rely on old legal copper services and systems including DSL rather than converting to FTTP (residential & business) and wireless (CDMA/GSM and future technologies).

Does not help that both also operate mostly in rural states with fewer high density (aka high revenue) cities.

Qwest does bring their extensive backbone network to the table, which does comprise of long distance fiber optics but this does little for improving speeds for end users since each core metro market is still mostly copper/coax based with end users being serviced solely by copper and its limited capacity.

Verizon is no longer a good example to use since it has begun to sell off local service markets including those with FIOS to other carriers such as Frontier.

Until the telcos realize they need to spend money on improving and modernizing their networks rather than on executive compensation, keeping Wall Street happy or on unnecessary lobbying the US is doomed to continue lagging behind other countries such as Japan, Korea and many EU nations.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

between slow crap and nothing?

subscribers would rather take nothing... who knew?

now qwest does... buy some more vrads you cheap bastards!

kataan
Premium Member
join:2003-04-22
Greenacres, WA
Buffalo WZR-1750DHPD

kataan

Premium Member

Re: between slow crap and nothing?

They can install all the vrads they want, but in my neighborhood there aren't enough lines to do pair bonding. Hell the is only ONE extra pair for 40 houses. So no mater what we are getting 1.5/384 top speed. Qwest is sinking like a rock for a provider here!
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

Re: between slow crap and nothing?

said by kataan:

They can install all the vrads they want, but in my neighborhood there aren't enough lines to do pair bonding. Hell the is only ONE extra pair for 40 houses. So no mater what we are getting 1.5/384 top speed. Qwest is sinking like a rock for a provider here!
The whole purpose of a vrad is to drag out fiber optic lines to the vrad and that is the equivalent of having the central office right there.. then upto 3,000 feet the company should be able to transmit 8-24 megabits down, 1-3 up (similar to at&t) without breaking a sweat (aka line bonding).. depending upon the quality of the copper in the true "LAST MILE". This is NOT 1996, the dsl technology is vastly improved over primitive remote terminals. These are hard core central office extenders.. although not fttp, they serve a purpose or at&t woudn't be investing millions to make it happen if the technology did not have some merit.

kataan
Premium Member
join:2003-04-22
Greenacres, WA
Buffalo WZR-1750DHPD

kataan

Premium Member

Re: between slow crap and nothing?

I understand what you are saying. However, with out getting in to ridiculous amounts of detail. Qwest has let the lines in my area degrade to the point that line bonding is required. I am less then two blocks from the vrad and my top speeds available are as stated. About a mile from here were they have layed new copper (about 20 years ago) 40/5 is available.

crazyk4952
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
united state

crazyk4952

Premium Member

Slow DSL vs moderate cable speed

Qwest offers only a 3 Mbps connection where I live. The cable company offers 12 Mbps. I don't understand how they can compete.
chgo_man99
join:2010-01-01
Sunnyvale, CA

chgo_man99

Member

Des Moines, IA

college town has some apartments where Qwest provides 40/5. But only very few!

I wonder, what will happen to the service once its acquired by subprime CentruryLink
bikerdude
join:2003-10-14
Conifer, CO

bikerdude

Member

Qwest 1.5M is all I can get.

Wish I could get more speed, but it is not available in my area. Nor is Cable, nor is wireless. 1.5 is better than dial up or sattelite though.

hjinx
@comcast.net

hjinx

Anon

Re: Qwest 1.5M is all I can get.

Same here. 1.5 from Qwest. Would consider them if they offered decent speeds. Can get 50 from Comcast but settle for 22.

C'mon Qwest compete on speeds!
TransitJohn
join:2009-05-08
Denver, CO

TransitJohn to bikerdude

Member

to bikerdude
Same in Laramie, third largest city in Wyoming (although that isn't really saying much), 27000 people. Not worth their time to upgrade, not quick enough ROI in today's world.

Mert
@ut.us

Mert

Anon

Jumping ship

I'm jumping ship to cable next week. Tired of the crappy 1.5 with it's silly ppoe overhead.
dynodb
Premium Member
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

dynodb

Premium Member

40,000 net adds is bad?

A gain of 40,000 net broadband customers in a quarter doesn't sound too bad considering that some people still can only get 1.5M. Much larger Verizon has FOiS and added 61,000 net.

Keep in mind that some of the FTTN adds don't necessarily reflect higher speeds- on new FTTN installs, everyone on that DSLAM is considered FTTN whether they have 1.5M or 40M.
mdrift
join:2003-08-15
Spokane, WA

mdrift

Member

Re: 40,000 net adds is bad?

said by dynodb:

A gain of 40,000 net broadband customers in a quarter doesn't sound too bad considering that some people still can only get 1.5M. Much larger Verizon has FOiS and added 61,000 net.

Keep in mind that some of the FTTN adds don't necessarily reflect higher speeds- on new FTTN installs, everyone on that DSLAM is considered FTTN whether they have 1.5M or 40M.
The problem is the build out options for FTTN won't surpass the loss of ADSL customers, in total.

They didn't build out the network to allow a smooth switch over and thus retain their customer base.

Unfortunately, this country has a joke of a high speed solution for the general consumer.

Even Comcast bled 275,000 customers this past quarter.

It's time for Municipalities to step in.

nxobu
@comcast.net

nxobu

Anon

Re: 40,000 net adds is bad?

Comcast customer loss was on their TV product. Not broadband.

Jon Geb
Long time member
join:2001-01-09
Howell, MI

Jon Geb

Member

I love my U-Verse VDSL

This connection is so solid. 24/3 and zero downtime since I got it. Nothing to complain about here.

Actually I'm scaling it back to 12mbs, save myself $20 a month for useless bandwidth. Seriously folks, in 2010 anything higher then 10mbs is only good for pirating software and movies.

runzero
join:2005-09-16
DC

runzero

Member

Re: I love my U-Verse VDSL

said by Jon Geb:

Seriously folks, in 2010 anything higher then 10mbs is only good for pirating software and movies.
You build the road before the traffic jam.

On a side note, I don't see how I can handle U-verse's 3 Mbps upload speed. FiOS's 25/25 seems to be the sweet spot.

Anon6
@comcast.net

Anon6

Anon

faster

is better, now give us faster upload and we all would be set!

HunterZ
join:2003-07-16
Kent, WA

HunterZ

Member

Canceled phone service

After not having used my Qwest landline phone for over a year (switched to cell phone as primary) I finally canceled last week. They guy was very polite and did not hassle me at all. I was amused when he mentioned that they offer dry-loop DSL though.