Qwest 12 Mbps, 20 Mbps is Resonating

Of the 90,000 the net additions Qwest had for high-speed access in the most recent quarter, 13,000 (14 percent) of them were related to the new fiber-to-the-node build-out. You might think, "so what?"

Those customers were gotten in just 30 days, in the last month of the quarter, so it appears there is strong demand for a higher-speed (12 Mbps or 20 Mbps) product.

Qwest also appears to be readying an "over the top" video on demand service in conjunction with DirecTV, which already supplies Qwest linear entertainment video services. That would make perfect sense for both companies. DirecTV needs more bandwidth on the ground to serve up an effective VOD service, and Qwest has the bandwidth.

Qwest also has been an effective retail partner for DirecTV services, so the any new offer would make sense to consumers who already buy DirecTV from Qwest.

"We are hopeful to take advantage of video on demand with our DirecTV," Mueller says. Qwest is "preparing for the natural synergies between their video on demand product to launch this year and our investment in broadband capabilities."

And high-speed access prices will rise. "We will do price increases, that is our plan," says CEO Ed Mueller. The logical path is to create higher-speed tiers and then charge more for them. People understand that sort of packaging.