Qwest Communications International, Inc. is a large telecommunications carrier, a subsidiary and operating company of CenturyLink. Qwest provides local service in 14 western U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Qwest provides voice, Internet backbone data services, and digital television in some areas. It operates in three segments: Wireline Services, Wireless Services, and Other Services. The Wireline Services segment provides local voice, long distance voice, and data and Internet (DSL) services to consumers, businesses, and wholesale customers, as well as access services to wholesale customers. The Wireless Services segment is achieved by a partnership with Verizon Wireless. Qwest also partners with DirecTV to provide digital television service to its customers. In Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Omaha, Qwest offers Qwest Choice TV. The Other Services segment primarily involves the sublease of real estate assets, such as space in office buildings, warehouses, and other properties.
Qwest Communications also provides long-distance services and broadband data, as well as voice and video communications globally. The company sells its products and services to small businesses, governmental entities, and public and private educational institutions through various channels, including direct-sales marketing, telemarketing, arrangements with third-party agents, company’s Web site, and partnership relations. As of September 13, 2005, Qwest had 98 retail stores in 14 states. Qwest Communications is headquartered in Denver, Colorado at 1801 California Street, in the 2nd tallest building in Denver at 53 stories. The majority of Qwest occupational or non-management employees are represented by two labor unions; the Communications Workers of America and in Montana, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Qwest also has a state-of-the-art development centers in Bangalore and Noida (New Delhi), India called Qwest Software Services.
On April 22, 2010, CenturyLink announced it would acquire Qwest in a stock-for-stock transaction.[2] The merger closed on April 1, 2011. Qwest began doing business as CenturyLink in April 2011.
With Internet usage increasing dramatically in 1997, Qwest made plans to take advantage of the expansion of voice-over-Internet protocol (IP) services. In December 1997 Qwest announced it would offer IP-based services to users in nine Western cities. The service was expected to resolve voice-quality problems associated with IP-based telephone services. It was initially offered as a consumer long-distance package at 7.5 cents-per-minute, with business customers to follow.
In March 1998, Qwest announced it would acquire the McLean, Virginia-based long-distance carrier LCI International Inc. for $4.4 billion. The deal would create the fourth-largest long-distance carrier in the United States behind AT & T, MCI Worldcom, and Sprint Corp. The combined companies would have about 5,800 employees and revenue of $2.3 billion. The acquisition gave Qwest two million long-distance customers and a well-established sales force. In the same month, Qwest also announced that it would purchase EUNet, a European ISP based in Amsterdam with about 60,000 customers and 1997 revenue of $55 million, for $154 million.
A month later, Qwest activated the portion of its fiber network that connected Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, giving the company more than 5,400 route-miles of its network in service. The company also joined with Cisco Systems Inc. and Nortel to create a new IP backbone network called Internet2 for use by the academic community. The project was conceived by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), which was a consortium of 130 universities. Qwest contributed capacity on its fiber network, while Cisco contributed $4.5 million worth of switch routers and Nortel contributed products used in its SONET interface technology. The project was announced by Vice President Al Gore in a White House Press conference, where he praised Qwest for donating $500 million worth of bandwidth to the project. Later in 1998, Qwest planned to roll out its own ATM, frame relay, and virtual private network (VPN) services at lower costs than its long-distance competitors AT & T, MCI, and others.
Soon thereafter, RBOC Ameritech (which was in the process of being acquired by SBC Communications Inc.--formerly Southwestern Bell) announced that it would begin offering long-distance service through an alliance with Qwest. The plan was challenged by other long-distance carriers, however, who pointed out that the Telecommunication Act of 1996 required the RBOCs, which had virtual monopolies on local phone markets, to prove their local market were open to competition before they could offer long-distance services. Qwest and US West had reached a similar agreement earlier in 1998 that was also challenged. Later in the year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled against the agreements.
In mid-1998 Qwest announced it would offer long-distance service in Europe. While the acquisition of ISP EUNet gave Qwest data services, it planned to offer voice services by making deals with established carriers in Europe. Meanwhile, back in the United States Qwest sold bandwidth on its fiber network to competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) Electric Lightwave for $122 million. Qwest also sold $60 million worth of bandwidth to Digital Broadcast Network Corp. for IP-based ATM services.
In September 1998 Qwest acquired Icon CMT of Weehawken, New Jersey, for $185 million in stock. Icon CMT provided Internet-based services, such as Web hosting, intranets, online stock trading, and online publications for larger corporations. Qwest also formed a three-year alliance with Netscape Communications to provide Netscape's Web portal, NetCenter, with a range of telecommunications services including Internet access. Qwest was in the process of building 10 CyberCenters around the United States to offer a range of Web hosting and multimedia applications to Internet customers. Four centers would open in 1998 in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., with six centers slated for 1999.
Before the end of the year, Qwest snared another AT & T executive when John McMaster, acting head of AT & T's consumer markets division, left the firm to join Qwest and take control of its international operations. At the same time, Qwest announced it would build a fiber-optic network in Europe with Dutch telecommunications company KPN. Qwest's European network would soon link with its North American network.
In December 1998 Qwest and Microsoft Corp. announced an agreement whereby Microsoft would invest $200 million in Qwest, taking a 1.3 percent minority interest in the company. Qwest, in turn, would use the Microsoft Windows NT Server OS as the basis of its electronic commerce, Web hosting, streaming media, managed software, and virtual private networking services to be introduced in 1999. Qwest's 1998 revenue was reported at $2.2 billion.
As part of its national fiber network, Qwest had completed local fiber optic rings in 10 cities in 1998, and planned to add nine more by 2000. The company's Seattle ring ran through Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus, giving Qwest the ability to provide broadband connectivity directly to Microsoft.
From its origins as a fiber-optic network-building subsidiary of Southern Pacific Transportation Co., Qwest Communications International, Inc. has grown through acquisitions to offer local and long-distance telephone services, as well as a range of Internet, multimedia, data, and voice services that are sold to business, consumer, and government customers. The company completed construction of its 18,500-mile national fiber-optic network in 1999, and then added 4,300 route miles in Canada and Mexico. At the end of the century, it was also building fiber-optic rings in Europe. In the year 2000 it completed its acquisition of regional Bell operating company (RBOC) US West.
Qwest Communications is among the leading US local phone providers, serving about 10 million access lines in a 14-state region. Its customers include nearly 3 million broadband Internet subscribers and about 1.7 million wireless and video subscribers. Qwest also provides long-distance and international calling, as well as data, digital telephony, and video to business clients. The company's wholesale network extends beyond its local service area, providing high-volume transmission capacity to carriers and resellers in major global cities. Qwest was acquired in 2010 by CenturyLink (formerly known as CenturyTel).
Several developments in the US West acquisition occurred in March 2000. The FCC gave its approval, but six state public service commissions had yet to rule on the merger following Colorado's approval in 1999. US West CEO Sol Trujillo had announced he would leave once the merger was completed, and rumors surfaced that Deutsche Telekom AG--Europe's largest telecommunications company--had made a $100 billion bid for both companies. Qwest announced that talks with Deutsche Telekom would not continue, however, following objections from US West.
In April 2000 Qwest announced a new development in its CyberCenter program. The company joined forces with IBM to open 28 CyberCenters, which would provide end-to-end control of applications, services, and network infrastructures in a hosted environment. Qwest would build and own the centers and act as the network provider, while IBM would provide operational support and buy hosting space for its e-commerce clients.
In addition, Qwest was in the process of selling part of its long-distance business to Touch America, a subsidiary of the Montana Power Co. Under federal rules Qwest would not be able to offer long-distance service within states served by US West. In July 2000 the FCC approved the sale of Qwest's long-distance assets in US West territory to Touch America for $193 million. About 250,000 Qwest subscribers, 1,800 miles of fiber, and 170 Qwest sales agents were involved in the transaction. The operations that were sold represented about six percent of Qwest's customers and accounted for about $300 million in annual revenue.
By July, the merger with US West had received approval from the state public service commissions and was a 'done' deal. In many cases, state approval was gained by agreeing to negotiate new service quality standards. Estimates of the price of the merger ranged from $35 billion to $80 billion. The new company would lose the US West name and continue using the Qwest name. Qwest immediately held a meeting for about 10,000 employees at the Pepsi Center in Denver, where it announced that it was dropping some 17 lawsuits US West had brought against various state public utility commissions. Altogether, the merged companies had about 70,000 employees worldwide. Later in the year Qwest announced it would streamline its workforce by cutting about 11,000 employee positions and 1,800 contractor positions by the end of 2001.
With the acquisition of US West completed, Qwest announced it would make quality of service its top priority for the local telephone customers it had gained. Other announced goals included doubling its DSL users from 250,000 to 500,000; doubling the number of wireless users from 800,000 to 1.6 million; and doubling its Web-hosting space--all by the end of 2001. The company also planned to improve access to its network in order to be able to re-enter the long-distance market again in the 14 western states formerly served by US West.
Principal Competitors: AT & T; MCI Worldcom Inc.; Sprint Corp.; IXC Communications Inc.; Level 3 Communications Inc.; Williams Communications Solutions LLC; Cable & Wireless plc;
Financial Highlights
Fiscal Year End: December
Revenue (2010): 11730.00 M
Revenue Growth (1 yr): (-4.70%)
Employees (2010): 28,343
Employee Growth (1 yr): (-6.00%)
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1988 as SP Telecom
Employees: 70,000
Sales: $3.92 billion (1999)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: Q
NAIC: 513310 Wired Telecommunications Carriers; 513322 Cellular and Other Wireless Telecommunications; 514191 On-Line Information Services
Key Dates:
1988: SP Telecom is established as a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Transportation Co.
1995: SP Telecom assumes the name of Qwest Communications Corp. and goes public later in the year as Qwest Communications International, Inc.
1998: Qwest acquires long-distance carrier LCI International for $4.4 billion.
1999: Qwest receives a $3.5 billion investment from BellSouth; initiates takeover bids for US West and Frontier Communications.
2000: Qwest completes acquisition of US West.
Key People
• Chairman and CEO: Edward A. (Ed) Mueller
• EVP and COO: Teresa A. Taylor
• VP and CTO: Pieter Poll
Contact Information
Address: 1801 California St.
Denver, CO 80202
Qwest provides voice, Internet backbone data services, and digital television in some areas. It operates in three segments: Wireline Services, Wireless Services, and Other Services. The Wireline Services segment provides local voice, long distance voice, and data and Internet (DSL) services to consumers, businesses, and wholesale customers, as well as access services to wholesale customers. The Wireless Services segment is achieved by a partnership with Verizon Wireless. Qwest also partners with DirecTV to provide digital television service to its customers. In Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Omaha, Qwest offers Qwest Choice TV. The Other Services segment primarily involves the sublease of real estate assets, such as space in office buildings, warehouses, and other properties.
Qwest Communications also provides long-distance services and broadband data, as well as voice and video communications globally. The company sells its products and services to small businesses, governmental entities, and public and private educational institutions through various channels, including direct-sales marketing, telemarketing, arrangements with third-party agents, company’s Web site, and partnership relations. As of September 13, 2005, Qwest had 98 retail stores in 14 states. Qwest Communications is headquartered in Denver, Colorado at 1801 California Street, in the 2nd tallest building in Denver at 53 stories. The majority of Qwest occupational or non-management employees are represented by two labor unions; the Communications Workers of America and in Montana, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Qwest also has a state-of-the-art development centers in Bangalore and Noida (New Delhi), India called Qwest Software Services.
On April 22, 2010, CenturyLink announced it would acquire Qwest in a stock-for-stock transaction.[2] The merger closed on April 1, 2011. Qwest began doing business as CenturyLink in April 2011.
With Internet usage increasing dramatically in 1997, Qwest made plans to take advantage of the expansion of voice-over-Internet protocol (IP) services. In December 1997 Qwest announced it would offer IP-based services to users in nine Western cities. The service was expected to resolve voice-quality problems associated with IP-based telephone services. It was initially offered as a consumer long-distance package at 7.5 cents-per-minute, with business customers to follow.
In March 1998, Qwest announced it would acquire the McLean, Virginia-based long-distance carrier LCI International Inc. for $4.4 billion. The deal would create the fourth-largest long-distance carrier in the United States behind AT & T, MCI Worldcom, and Sprint Corp. The combined companies would have about 5,800 employees and revenue of $2.3 billion. The acquisition gave Qwest two million long-distance customers and a well-established sales force. In the same month, Qwest also announced that it would purchase EUNet, a European ISP based in Amsterdam with about 60,000 customers and 1997 revenue of $55 million, for $154 million.
A month later, Qwest activated the portion of its fiber network that connected Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York, giving the company more than 5,400 route-miles of its network in service. The company also joined with Cisco Systems Inc. and Nortel to create a new IP backbone network called Internet2 for use by the academic community. The project was conceived by the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development (UCAID), which was a consortium of 130 universities. Qwest contributed capacity on its fiber network, while Cisco contributed $4.5 million worth of switch routers and Nortel contributed products used in its SONET interface technology. The project was announced by Vice President Al Gore in a White House Press conference, where he praised Qwest for donating $500 million worth of bandwidth to the project. Later in 1998, Qwest planned to roll out its own ATM, frame relay, and virtual private network (VPN) services at lower costs than its long-distance competitors AT & T, MCI, and others.
Soon thereafter, RBOC Ameritech (which was in the process of being acquired by SBC Communications Inc.--formerly Southwestern Bell) announced that it would begin offering long-distance service through an alliance with Qwest. The plan was challenged by other long-distance carriers, however, who pointed out that the Telecommunication Act of 1996 required the RBOCs, which had virtual monopolies on local phone markets, to prove their local market were open to competition before they could offer long-distance services. Qwest and US West had reached a similar agreement earlier in 1998 that was also challenged. Later in the year the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled against the agreements.
In mid-1998 Qwest announced it would offer long-distance service in Europe. While the acquisition of ISP EUNet gave Qwest data services, it planned to offer voice services by making deals with established carriers in Europe. Meanwhile, back in the United States Qwest sold bandwidth on its fiber network to competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) Electric Lightwave for $122 million. Qwest also sold $60 million worth of bandwidth to Digital Broadcast Network Corp. for IP-based ATM services.
In September 1998 Qwest acquired Icon CMT of Weehawken, New Jersey, for $185 million in stock. Icon CMT provided Internet-based services, such as Web hosting, intranets, online stock trading, and online publications for larger corporations. Qwest also formed a three-year alliance with Netscape Communications to provide Netscape's Web portal, NetCenter, with a range of telecommunications services including Internet access. Qwest was in the process of building 10 CyberCenters around the United States to offer a range of Web hosting and multimedia applications to Internet customers. Four centers would open in 1998 in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., with six centers slated for 1999.
Before the end of the year, Qwest snared another AT & T executive when John McMaster, acting head of AT & T's consumer markets division, left the firm to join Qwest and take control of its international operations. At the same time, Qwest announced it would build a fiber-optic network in Europe with Dutch telecommunications company KPN. Qwest's European network would soon link with its North American network.
In December 1998 Qwest and Microsoft Corp. announced an agreement whereby Microsoft would invest $200 million in Qwest, taking a 1.3 percent minority interest in the company. Qwest, in turn, would use the Microsoft Windows NT Server OS as the basis of its electronic commerce, Web hosting, streaming media, managed software, and virtual private networking services to be introduced in 1999. Qwest's 1998 revenue was reported at $2.2 billion.
As part of its national fiber network, Qwest had completed local fiber optic rings in 10 cities in 1998, and planned to add nine more by 2000. The company's Seattle ring ran through Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus, giving Qwest the ability to provide broadband connectivity directly to Microsoft.
From its origins as a fiber-optic network-building subsidiary of Southern Pacific Transportation Co., Qwest Communications International, Inc. has grown through acquisitions to offer local and long-distance telephone services, as well as a range of Internet, multimedia, data, and voice services that are sold to business, consumer, and government customers. The company completed construction of its 18,500-mile national fiber-optic network in 1999, and then added 4,300 route miles in Canada and Mexico. At the end of the century, it was also building fiber-optic rings in Europe. In the year 2000 it completed its acquisition of regional Bell operating company (RBOC) US West.
Qwest Communications is among the leading US local phone providers, serving about 10 million access lines in a 14-state region. Its customers include nearly 3 million broadband Internet subscribers and about 1.7 million wireless and video subscribers. Qwest also provides long-distance and international calling, as well as data, digital telephony, and video to business clients. The company's wholesale network extends beyond its local service area, providing high-volume transmission capacity to carriers and resellers in major global cities. Qwest was acquired in 2010 by CenturyLink (formerly known as CenturyTel).
Several developments in the US West acquisition occurred in March 2000. The FCC gave its approval, but six state public service commissions had yet to rule on the merger following Colorado's approval in 1999. US West CEO Sol Trujillo had announced he would leave once the merger was completed, and rumors surfaced that Deutsche Telekom AG--Europe's largest telecommunications company--had made a $100 billion bid for both companies. Qwest announced that talks with Deutsche Telekom would not continue, however, following objections from US West.
In April 2000 Qwest announced a new development in its CyberCenter program. The company joined forces with IBM to open 28 CyberCenters, which would provide end-to-end control of applications, services, and network infrastructures in a hosted environment. Qwest would build and own the centers and act as the network provider, while IBM would provide operational support and buy hosting space for its e-commerce clients.
In addition, Qwest was in the process of selling part of its long-distance business to Touch America, a subsidiary of the Montana Power Co. Under federal rules Qwest would not be able to offer long-distance service within states served by US West. In July 2000 the FCC approved the sale of Qwest's long-distance assets in US West territory to Touch America for $193 million. About 250,000 Qwest subscribers, 1,800 miles of fiber, and 170 Qwest sales agents were involved in the transaction. The operations that were sold represented about six percent of Qwest's customers and accounted for about $300 million in annual revenue.
By July, the merger with US West had received approval from the state public service commissions and was a 'done' deal. In many cases, state approval was gained by agreeing to negotiate new service quality standards. Estimates of the price of the merger ranged from $35 billion to $80 billion. The new company would lose the US West name and continue using the Qwest name. Qwest immediately held a meeting for about 10,000 employees at the Pepsi Center in Denver, where it announced that it was dropping some 17 lawsuits US West had brought against various state public utility commissions. Altogether, the merged companies had about 70,000 employees worldwide. Later in the year Qwest announced it would streamline its workforce by cutting about 11,000 employee positions and 1,800 contractor positions by the end of 2001.
With the acquisition of US West completed, Qwest announced it would make quality of service its top priority for the local telephone customers it had gained. Other announced goals included doubling its DSL users from 250,000 to 500,000; doubling the number of wireless users from 800,000 to 1.6 million; and doubling its Web-hosting space--all by the end of 2001. The company also planned to improve access to its network in order to be able to re-enter the long-distance market again in the 14 western states formerly served by US West.
Principal Competitors: AT & T; MCI Worldcom Inc.; Sprint Corp.; IXC Communications Inc.; Level 3 Communications Inc.; Williams Communications Solutions LLC; Cable & Wireless plc;
Financial Highlights
Fiscal Year End: December
Revenue (2010): 11730.00 M
Revenue Growth (1 yr): (-4.70%)
Employees (2010): 28,343
Employee Growth (1 yr): (-6.00%)
Statistics:
Public Company
Incorporated: 1988 as SP Telecom
Employees: 70,000
Sales: $3.92 billion (1999)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: Q
NAIC: 513310 Wired Telecommunications Carriers; 513322 Cellular and Other Wireless Telecommunications; 514191 On-Line Information Services
Key Dates:
1988: SP Telecom is established as a subsidiary of Southern Pacific Transportation Co.
1995: SP Telecom assumes the name of Qwest Communications Corp. and goes public later in the year as Qwest Communications International, Inc.
1998: Qwest acquires long-distance carrier LCI International for $4.4 billion.
1999: Qwest receives a $3.5 billion investment from BellSouth; initiates takeover bids for US West and Frontier Communications.
2000: Qwest completes acquisition of US West.
Key People
• Chairman and CEO: Edward A. (Ed) Mueller
• EVP and COO: Teresa A. Taylor
• VP and CTO: Pieter Poll
Contact Information
Address: 1801 California St.
Denver, CO 80202