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CenturyLink spokesperson Stephanie Meisse tells Telecompetitor the 48,000 customers who will be eligible for the gigabit network were previously served by pre-DOCSIS hybrid fiber coax that needed upgrading. CenturyLink is upgrading that network to Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) technology to facilitate up to 1 Gig speeds. The gigabit deployment will not cover all of CenturyLink’s Omaha footprint — it will only be available, for now at least, to west Omaha, where the legacy hybrid-fiber coax network was deployed.Before Qwest was taken over by CenturyLink, it had created a pilot project in this area called Qwest Choice TV and OnLine where it offered triple play services -- adding cable television to its DSL and telephone suite. This approach only got as far as Phoenix, Denver, and Omaha in the old Qwest areas. To be clear, the Omaha trial is pretty limited. 48,000 households is substantial, but only represents 12% of the metro. And a specific demographic slice according to Phil Dampier at Stop the Cap:
Only around 12% of metropolitan Omaha will have access to the experimental fiber service, primarily those living in West Omaha. The network will bypass residents that live further east. The boundaries of the forthcoming fiber network are notable: West Omaha comprises mostly affluent middle and upper class professionals and is one of the wealthiest areas in the metropolitan region. Winning a right to offer service on a limited basis within Omaha is an important consideration for telecom companies like CenturyLink.The gigabit price is pretty reasonable, in the way that only a few massive operators can make it: $80/month when bundled and $150/month for standalone.
The company confirmed to me last March that they impose a 150 GB for 1.5 Mbps service plans, and a 300 GB cap for anything faster. The company also boots excessive users off of their network.Any expectation that CenturyLink will make more investments of this nature soon are mistaken. They even candidly admit that they will have to evaluate this pilot project before considering expansion. That evaluation would happen in 2014, at the earliest. If they were to expand it, it will take another few years before they get going. In the meantime, the vast majority of CenturyLink customers will be stuck on DSL. Let's take a look at CenturyLink's capital investment strategy. This is where we get a better sense of the companies true priorities. Thanks to Seeking Alpha, we can read the transcript of the Q4 2012 Earnings Call from mid February. The call reveals that CenturyLink has placed a major emphasis on getting fiber to wireless towers (a cash cow) and connecting large enterprise customers with cloud services. Neither of these approaches do anything to improve residential or small business Internet access in communties. But they are a very sensible place for a firm to maximize its revenues. Stewart Ewing, CFO, stated:
Capital expenditures are expected to range from $2.8 billion to $3 billion driven by spending in our key growth areas, data hosting will spend $325 million to $375 million, HSI [High Speed Internet] expansion and HSI capacity will spend between $350 million and $375 million, and our Fiber-to-the-tower will continue to spend about $250 million to $300 million in this area, our Prism TV with the launch of the Phoenix and one other market, we expect to spend $100 million to $150 million.
That's our thinking now. Pretty flat, we could bring it down some, cut it off a little bit depending on. It's really based on the success of these new initiatives, I mean, what we think we can drive in terms of revenue and margins going forward.CenturyLink is not dumb or evil, it just has different priorities for investment than what communities need. The sooner local governments understand this, the better. Heck, CenturyLink itself has made this point in Minnesota:
We’re a public company. We have shareholders. We have rules and commitments. If you’re smaller, the shareholders are the owners. There’s more flexibility – especially if owners/shareholders are local.Minnesota Public Radio summed it up:
Noting that CenturyLink wants every customer it can find, Ring pointed out that the company nonetheless needs a return on investment that satisfies shareholders and meets the demands of larger commitments and fiduciary responsibilities.The lesson is clear. Omaha is a outlier, don't count on CenturyLink to invest in better connections for your community. And finally, I could not resist but note Julius Genachowski's final hurrah: One of the last acts of former Chairman Genachowski was to rush out a press release praising this limited pilot, though the former Chairman has ignored much more impressive citywide announcements of gigabit availability in other communities including Wilson, North Carolina; Clarksville, Tennessee; Tullahoma, Tennessee; and even a small company doing an apartment complext in Albuquerque, New Mexico: CityLink Fiber. The federal government remains clueless in this regard, blinding by the lobbying glitz of powerful industries. The big cable and telephone companies will not solve our Internet connectivity problems. Communities are wise to depend on themselves.