Qwest shops its long distance network again (with local attached)

"We're agnostic about being a buyer or a seller," said Ed Mueller, CEO of Qwest Communications, at an investor conference yesterday, though he sounded much more like a seller as he continued. "We do bring a nice long-distance network," he pointed out, adding that those particular assets "absolutely" become more valuable as the need for more wireless backhaul capacity increases. Qwest already has signed contracts to string fiber to 2000 of its 17,000 cell cites and expects revenue from these five-to-10-year deals to start showing up later this year and escalate in 2011.