Plenty of head-scratching followed Qwest’s description today of its fiber-to-the-node strategy.

The company is moving ahead with a relatively modest but not inexpensive FTTN rollout, but those plans don’t appear to include a terrestrial video service offering. Qwest partners with DirecTV for video and will continue to do so, it said. Instead, FTTN will mainly just be used to boost the broadband speeds of Qwest’s customers, enabling a slew of services CEO Ed Mueller can’t yet define or completely predict.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but this would seem to make Qwest the first carrier to deploy FTTN without using video to justify the expense. (Qwest, a fiber pioneer? Hmm.) I wasn’t surprised when one analyst on today’s earnings call said it made him “nervous.” I was surprised, however, at Mueller’s terse reply.

It’s certainly possible that Mueller is simply keeping his cards close to his vest, preferring not to tip competitors off to future strategy while keeping investors in the dark as well. It’s also possible that Qwest will augment its DirecTV offering with substantial on-demand IP video offerings over FTTN (I get the impression this is sort of what the people at Embarq have in mind), which would mean it wouldn’t actually be the first FTTN provider without a terrestrial video offering.

But to hear Mueller talk about it today, he seemed to feel an imperative to increase broadband speeds first and foremost and fill in the rest later. Though practical logic might suggest IPTV as the main reason to deploy FTTN, other fiber deployers might remind us that, in a competitive market, emotion sometimes takes precedent over logic. Consumers want faster broadband now, whether or not they know what to do with that speed.

E-mail me at ed.gubbins@penton.com.