Billions were wasted in frenzy to build networks, 90% of which lie dormant More than 18 months into the telecom downturn, experts are still divided over the depth of the bandwidth glut. But there's little disagreement about the money wasted ... About $70 billion was squandered over the past five years ... Much of the fiber may never be used. Another view is that it's not a glut of fiber, so much as it is a glut of utility companies. On some routes as many as 10 to 15 companies have built backbones. "Denver to Chicago has 800 fibers." [Roughly speaking, this is enough capacity to transfer the contents of the entire public World Wide Web between the two cities in about one minute.] Much of the money wasted wasn't in fiber, but in construction crews, engineers, executives, buildings and everything else ... What is the future for an industry that has wasted tens of billions of dollars and can't repay its debt? Experts agree the most likely scenario is continued consolidation until there are only a few players remaining in the long-haul market. The question is whether there will be enough demand, soon enough. Fiber-optic fallout | 
