Qwest Communications has selected a master planned community near Denver as the site of the telco’s first deployment of fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) technology.

The first Qwest community to add fiber-fed services to its diet will be RidgeGate, a development south of Denver in the city of Lone Tree that is expected to grow to about 12,000 homes in the next 50 years, according to the developer.

Qwest will tap the FTTH network there to deliver a range of high-speed data, video (including high-definition television) and telephony services.

Although the network will support dedicated downstream speeds as high as 40 Mbps, Qwest will offer a “reduced rate” 1.5 Mbps service to all RidgeGate residents. Those residents will also have the option to buy a faster tier of service. Comcast Cable, Qwest’s primary competitor in the area, caps its flagship data service at 3 Mbps downstream.

Qwest, which has trailed well behind the plans of other RBOCs in terms of residential service fiber deployments, noted that it will only deploy FTTH in greenfield situations, but declined to name additional FTTH deployment markets or sites.

“Fiber-to-the-home is an extension of our efforts to deliver new broadband services and applications to customers,” said Jim Vogel, vice president of sales for Qwest. “As a result, RidgeGate homeowners will have some of the most technologically advanced households in the state.”