We discuss the long distance transmission of qubits encoded in optical
coherent states. Through absorption these qubits suffer from two main types of
errors, the reduction of the amplitude of the coherent states and accidental
application of the Pauli Z operator. We show how these errors can be fixed
using techniques of teleportation and error correcting codes.Comment: Added two pages of explanation/background/review material to increase
readability and clarity. Corrected minor typographical and linguistic error
