Qwest appears to be training employees in preparation for a broader deployment of fiber to the node and VDSL or ADSL2+ technology, according to documents obtained by Broadband Reports. The documents refer to a new service internally dubbed "IP Broadband," which will be deployed first on August 19 in Denver, Phoenix and Colorado Springs.

Later launch markets include Seattle, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Portland, Salt Lake City and Des Moines. According to the training material, the service will be available to 8% of Qwest customers by the end of 2007 and 24% of Qwest's customers by the end of 2008.

The documents highlight a product that will offer speeds and prices in line with existing DSL service (1.5-7Mbps) for the time being. "They probably will offer higher speeds eventually," says an insider. "But its going to be 'wait and see.'"

We contacted Qwest to confirm, but according to spokesperson Johnna Hoff, the company has no plans to announce any new FTTH, ADSL2+ or FTTN deployment. "Nor do we plan to name any service 'IP Broadband,'" says Hoff. "As with all of Qwest's broadband-related services, though, we continually examine areas for service deployment."

Qwest currently offers fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) technology in areas
of Phoenix and Denver and FTTH technology in a few development communities in Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Washington. Our insider insists this launch is "bigger then [sic] the last attempts at VDSL/FTTH since it's more widespread."

Another insider tells us that the technology being used here is ADSL2+, the rollout date for deployment has been consistently delayed over the past year, and the launch date could easily be delayed again. The technology may, or may not be ultimately be used to deliver IPTV, a concept that Qwest has publicly been very luke warm towards.