Re:problem is... (Score 1)

Many corporations have yet taken measures to move unto those strands of unused fibers, and it would cost many companies an arm and leg to replace their cabling, especially when they haven't even used it yet.

...and who knows by the time this is even feasible, with the way technology changes, there's bound to be something even faster by the time this becomes something close to a standard.

Although I agree that that folks like Qwest will have to pay an arm and leg to replace existing cable, I believe that it's important to realize that this underlying economic argument is not true for all carriers. Some folks out there have multiple conduits -- 12 on all routes in the case of Level 3 -- which allows them to pull smaller fiber-count cables. When new generations of fiber come about, the new fiber is blown through an empty conduit (roughly a 1.25" pipe) at a very low incremental cost.

This way, one can take advantage of the new fiber systems as they become available. While fiber is expensive in relative terms, the optoelectronics are often 20x more expensive. Thus, with photonic band gap 'fiber' technologies, huge cost savings can be realized as hundreds of multiplexed lightpaths can transmitted without amplification.