The near-term bandwidth target is 20 Mb/s, Poll said, delivered over a fiber-to-the-node network that targets nodes of about 350 homes. Qwest has committed to spending $300 million this year to upgrade its existing remote DSL access multiplexers (DSLAMs).

“We have a very clean plant,” Poll said. “All of our crosspoints are at distribution areas, not carrier serving areas [which are larger nodes]. At first that was a disadvantage because our fixed costs were high, but now we have these 350-home nodes, and we can bring in gigabit Ethernet feeds or multiple Gig-Es” over fiber.

Poll said about 90% of Qwest’s territory fits the 350-home profile, and the company is working to make that 100%. In areas where the fiber reaches into larger nodes, Qwest may only provide 18 Mb/s service, Poll said.

“Pair-bonding is our next step,” he said. “Initially, we were looking at pair-bonding with ADSL 2+, but we are seeing waning interest there. Now we are seeing VDSL 2 bonding being more interesting.”

Right now, Qwest is testing ADSL 2+ pair bonding, but one reason VDSL 2 is likely to win out is its ability to open up the upstream, Poll said.

“We have a huge advantage over cable in that they are focused on the downstream,” he said. “In the whole argument around DOCSIS 3 [a cable standard] versus pair-bonding for delivering more bandwidth, the upstream is not being discussed.”

There is flexibility within the VDSL 2 standard, on which Qwest is actively working, to offer upstream bandwidth of 5 Mb/s to 10 Mb/s, Poll said. In addition, moving to VDSL eliminates the last bit of ATM in the network – that which connects the DSLAM to the ADSL 2+ modem – eliminating the 12% to 15% ATM overhead, he said.

Qwest has already seen a spike in popularity of its naked DSL service – data without a phone line – in college areas, and Poll sees this as a sign of the future.

“There is a generation that not only doesn’t want a landline phone but doesn’t want a TV service either,” he said. “They are watching video over the Internet.”

Qwest recently launched a new VoIP service, qHome, in parts of Colorado and will make this available across its territory by the end of this year, Poll said. Working with its ISP partner, MSN, Qwest designed the service to use a Parlay interface into its regular voice infrastructure and integrates the voice offering into email as well, offering incoming and outgoing call logs, call pop-ups and integrated voice mail.