Denver Post has this article which contends that wholesale strategies adopted by Qwest Communications and Level 3, primarily because they own thousands of miles of fiber could become a way out for for these beleaguered companies. Given that Level 3 lost money in 25 of its 26 quarters, this cannot be all that bad. “The strategy is relatively low- risk and potentially high-yield,” said Janco Partners analyst Donna Jaegers. “You could compare them to an arms merchant.” Not so fast: it is quite possible any of the desperate bandwidth providers – and there are many like MCI – to do precisely the same. I am sure AT&T which has built a nice IP infrastructure could do exactly the same. And all the VoIP traffic is not enough to fill the pipes. I have often said that VoIP is a deflationary force, and is going to slowly compress the revenues of all concerned – from bells to long distance carriers to wholesale bandwidth providers. Not unlike Linux or other open source software.