Coop Exhibit U

Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 11:14:33 -0700
To: axmcken@qwest.com
From: Carl Oppedahl <carl@oppedahl.com>
Subject: for tomorrow's phone conversation


Thank you for the phone call from your assistant, organizing a phone 
call with you and me tomorrow, Friday, at 10:30 AM.

Here are suggestions for things I hope you can consider between now 
and tomorrow's telephone call.

As you know, arbitration will go well into next year, and we 
urgently need to launch service now, before the ground 
freezes.  Right now there is simply no high-speed Internet 
access in our neighborhood from any provider at any price.  
Our member/subscribers can't wait any longer.

One area of concern, as you know, is insurance.  Qwest has 
said that any permanent or interim interconnect 
agreement will have to contain the $1 million insurance rider 
naming Qwest as an insured.  And we continue to 
be in the position of not knowing whether we will be able 
to get such insurance, since we don't know what risks 
to ask an insurance company to insure.  And even if we are 
able to get a policy, we are concerned that the 
premium will be beyond our economic ability.

So could you please talk to your insurance people, and ask 
if Qwest could simply obtain a $1M rider naming 
Qwest as the insured ... and (if the premium is within our 
ability) our Coop will reimburse Qwest for the added 
premium.  My best guess is that adding $1M to Qwest's 
existing property-casualty insurance will cost Qwest 
only a very modest premium, which we would offer to pay.  
For example, on my homeowner's insurance, a $1M 
umbrella rider costs only $20 per year extra.  Of course 
homeowner's insurance is not strictly comparable to the 
insurance that Qwest is requiring our Coop to purchase, 
but still, I expect the rider would not cost Qwest very much.

That would break the insurance logjam.  Then I would propose 
that we enter into an interim interconnect 
agreement, one that would be subject to later true-up 
depending on the results of the arbitration.  We would 
essentially be agreeing on an interim basis to Qwest's 
terms, leaving for arbitration the small number of 
issues that remain.

I look forward to our conversation.