In the long-running contest for the digital future, cable has been hitting home runs while the telecoms are just coming to bat. In the last eight yearts, the cable guys have spent $85 billion to tie fast digital pipes to the home. With their bolstered capacity, they offer hundreds of channels of video, movies on demand, high-definition TV, and, of course, high-speed Net access. And in their most direct challenge to the Baby bells yet, cable providers are aggressively pushing digital phone service over their networks. It's enough to give a telecom exec an anxiety attack. But now the Bells are gearing up to fight back Just as the cable industry is going after telecom's bread-and-butter voice business, the Bells are about to wage war on cable's home territory: video. Their ace: Ultrafast fiber-optic networks that match or surpass the capacity of cable's digital system. On Oct. 21, Verizon Communications Inc. was expected to announce plans to build fiber systems in six Eastern states from Massachusetts to Virginia. Along with lines Verizon is already stringing in Texas, Florida, and California, the company expects to bring fiber connections directly to 3 million homes with expensive, state-of-the-art technology by the end of 2005. The estimated cost: $2.4 billion. A week earlier, SBC Communications Inc. said it will accelerate its $4 billion to $6 billion fiber network build-out using less expensive technology; it plans to reach its goal of wiring 18 million homes, or more than half those it serves, by 2007.
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