Subject: [NEXTEL-1] 140,000 miles of fiber - and fortune - buried amid telecom ruins

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 09 Dec 2002 02:13:06 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
   From: "Todd Ellis" <[email-masked]>
Subject: 140,000 miles of fiber - and fortune - buried amid telecom ruins

This is a great story.  But what the author missed is how the glut is simply misplaced.
The glut is due to replication - or in another way, duplicity in routing.  Put 9 carriers
in a single metro-to-metro route (Raleigh to Columbia), and 2 maybe 3 will make it, while
the others will die off.What about the rural areas and the new kid in town, fiber to the
home?The rural areas in America are the ones who need fiber investment.  Like the
railroads and telegraphs as mentioned in the story, this technology was highly
attributable to the settlement of the West and points in between.  Transportation and
communications are the two economic building blocks in our society.  So where's the
investment?  One electric cooperative generation and transmission statewide company was
written up a couple years ago in the Wall Street Journal as having significant financial
holdings all earmarked for rural development, and how the money wasn't being spent -
instead, it was invested and growing, at the expense of overall rural development - the
reason the money was allocated to begin with.  Rural economies grow, and then so does the
electricity demand, and then so does the G&T's revenues.  In some cases, why isn't it
being spent?The next baby eagle in the nest is fiber to the home/business.  This fledgling
technology is moving in a positive position, where small communities of 1,000-10,000 homes
can provide broadband services to Everyman.  This stimulates the local economy in many
ways, some not so direct, but all contributing.  But this means fiber being run to every
single household (or at least to curbside).  It can be done, and economically.  We have
the models to demonstrate it, and the relationships with a major vendor to verify
it.Glut?  Just make sure you realize where the glut is.  Fiber and broadband services are
NOT in a glut position, no matter what the carriers and the reporters say.Todd Ellis

Amid telecom ruins,a fortune is buried

12/08/02

JEFFREY KOSSEFF

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