Rodent Regatta

Had the writer of this story bothered to analyze Level 3’s earliest presentations up to the present, some of the concerns he raises would have been answered. Clearly, Level 3 didn’t build a 20,000 mile next generation network just to distribute software.
Further, this writer stepped into the same trap that others have lost legs in. He wrongly assumes that dark fiber in the ground is somehow equivalent to ”excess network capacity.” Barring a world-wide depression of several years duration, there is simply no way to conclude that there is excess network capacity ready to carry traffic. Dark fiber is ”potential capacity” awaiting investment and construction to light it. Each year that passes the economics of lighting old generations of fiber become losing propositions. Fiber and the optoelectronics required to light it follow Moore’s Law rather than the practices traditionally followed by legacy phone companies.
The worst offense in the article is to site yet another network/teleco failure and extrapolate the same for any other player in the teleco industry. Someone once said, ”when you catch your competitor doing something stupid, get out of his way.”

Level 3’s strategy: Vision or folly?. The network operator’s new plan to acquire software distributors could be ahead of its time, or it could be a last-ditch effort to keep the company in business. [CNET News.com]