Feb 6th 2002.	Sprint Offers a Plan

WESTWOOD, Kan. -- The telephone system -- a honeycomb of copper wires, wooden poles and electronic switches -- has served its purpose for decades. But in the dawning age of the Internet, it is swiftly turning into a relic, and the fix will cost billions, realigning the industry.

Sprint Corp. fired a big salvo in this new wire war Tuesday, announcing a radical -- and risky -- network redesign that could alter the way communications services are delivered, what they cost and how you are billed for them.

Sprint has spent $2 billion in the past few years quietly pursuing this project, code-named FastBreak. A decade ago, Sprint one-upped bigger rivals by installing an all-fiber network, forcing competitors to follow suit. Today it is betting that a new network can increase the company's call-handling capacity 17-fold, cut the costs of long-distance calls by 70% and set new standards for service and billing.

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Sigh... here is a link to another article via the way back machine the one above will cost you money to visit at dow jones newswire.