George, no offense intended. As I said I don't know how 1st broadbands' network is structured. From what you say it seems little if no different to ours.
Whether you own/lease fiber or take a circuit over someone elses fiber doesn't realy matter much in the grand scheme of things.

I am also a user of the penguin :) The Cisco's are mainly there because of their port density.

Jon Lawrence
Network Manager, Tellnet Internet