NTCA's The New Edge » Qwest

CenturyLink and Qwest Complete Merger

Jesse Ward — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:29:12 +0000

CenturyLink Inc.and Qwest Communications have officially completed their merger, creating the nation’s third largest telecommunications company in the United States behind AT&T and Verizon.

The newly combined service provider will operate a 190,000-mile fiber network, offering a broad variety of services to residential, business, wholesale and government customers throughout its 37-state service area. The provider boasts more than 5 million broadband customers, 17 million access lines, 1,415,000 video subscribers and 850,000 wireless consumers.

“The combination of our two companies allows us to offer customers of all sizes an even more robust portfolio of communications solutions that will continue to be backed by honest and personal service,” said Glen F. Post, III, chief executive officer and president of CenturyLink.

The transaction was structured as a tax-free stock-for-stock exchange. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Qwest stockholders will receive 0.1664 shares of CenturyLink common stock for each share of Qwest common stock they owned at closing, plus cash paid in lieu of fractional shares.

CenturyLink expects the combination to generate annual operating and capital synergies of approximately $625 million when fully recognized over the next three to five years. On a pro forma basis, the combined company had revenues of $18.6 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $8.1 billion and adjusted free cash flow of approximately $3.1 billion for the twelve months ended Dec. 31, 2010.

As previously announced, the combined company will use the name CenturyLink, although the Qwest brand will continue to be used in former Qwest markets for the next several months. The corporate headquarters of the company will remain in Monroe, La. The company will maintain the headquarters for its Business Markets Group in the Denver metro area, where Qwest’s headquarters were located. In addition, Denver will be the location of one of the company’s six regional headquarters. The other five regional headquarters will be located in Phoenix; Minneapolis; Seattle; Wake Forest, N.C.; and Apopka, Fla.

For more, see this release.

FCC Approves CenturyLink/Qwest Merger

Jesse Ward — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:30:01 +0000

The FCC today approved the merger of CenturyLink Inc. and Qwest Communications International Inc. In doing so, the commission imposed a series of conditions designed to protection against the risk of harm to competition, and ensure the merged entity will live up to its commitments to significantly expand its network and launch a major broadband adoption program for low-income consumers.

The merger now needs one final state approval from Oregon. The transaction is still on track to close April 1.

Monroe, Louisiana-based CenturyLink offers voice, video, and data services in 33 states, serving approximately 7 million access lines and 2.2 million broadband customers in its region. CenturyLink also operates as a competitive local exchange carrier in certain local and regional markets.

Denver, Colorado-based Qwest operates as a local exchange carrier serving 10.3 million lines in a 14-state region; has 3 million broadband customers; and sells wireless, video, and extensive wholesale services through its subsidiaries. Under the deal, Qwest will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of CenturyLink.

For more, stay tuned to NTCA’s Washington Report (subscription required.)

CenturyLink/Qwest Merger on Track to Close April 1

Jesse Ward — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:41:16 +0000

Qwest announced last Friday that it is one step closer to completing its merger with CenturyLink (formerly known as CenturyTel).

A federal judge in Denver has approved a class-action settlement that will dismiss shareholder lawsuits filed against both companies. The judge “indicated that he’ll issue the order next week and it’ll become effective March 17,” said Qwest spokeswoman Diane Reberger.

After they announced plans for the merger last April, more than a dozen lawsuits were filed by shareholders claiming Qwest could have gotten a higher price and should have entertained additional offers. The cases were consolidated and assigned to U.S District Judge Wiley Daniel.

Under terms of the settlement, Qwest and CenturyLink agreed to provide additional disclosures about the merger. The companies also agreed to compensate the plaintiffs for their attorney fees.

With this latest barrier removed, the FCC and state authorities are close to approving the merger. The deal awaits approval in Arizona, Washington, Oregon and Minnesota. Analysts anticipate that it will close by the April 1 target date.

For more, see this website, which was created by Qwest and CenturyLink.

CenturyTel to Acquire Qwest

Steve Fravel — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:44:43 +0000

CenturyTel announced Thursday that it had reached an agreement, and would acquire Qwest Communications in a stock-swap of $10.6 billion. The merged companies would provide service in 37 states.

In 2008, CenturyTel purchased Embarq a landline services company that had been spun off by Sprint Nextel. CenturyTel will be looking for ways to enhance deployment of innovative communications products and services in the combined service areas according to the report.

Click here for the official press release.

Qwest Considers Applying for Stimulus Funds

Jesse Ward — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:15:09 +0000

Following on the heels of significant rule changes, Qwest is considering applying for the second round of broadband stimulus funds.

As you may remember, Qwest and its RBOC counterparts AT&T and Verizon, along with cable giant Comcast declined to file in the first round citing onerous requirements. Qwest was particularly deterred by a first-round rule that would not permit projects to be built within 60 miles of a city or town, even if those areas lacked broadband. The rule has since been amended in a way that motivates the regional carrier to give the stimulus program a second review.

Qwest stopped short of announcing its intent to apply, but the carrier will be evaluating the stimulus program to see if broadband expansion is more feasible under the realigned rules. “The good news is that they seem to have heard us in Washington, D.C.,” said Chuck Ward, Qwest’s Colorado president in a statement. “It almost gets us able to apply.”

The Denver Business Journal broke the story.
TMC has more.

Qwest Upgrades Ethernet Backbone to 100 Gbps

Jesse Ward — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:10:02 +0000

Qwest Communications has begun upgrading its Ethernet backbone to 100 Gbps. The buildout will continue throughout 2010.

Qwest said that once the upgrade is complete, the 100 Gbps backbone will deliver service to markets where the company offers its Ethernet-based iQ Networking and QWave data networking services.

To complete the enhancements, Qwest will utilize Alcatel-Lucent’s recently announced 100 Gbps Ethernet service routing capability, as well as Alcatel-Lucent’s optical, ultra long-haul platform to transport the 100 Gbps services.

The new architecture is designed to reduce latency and add capacity to the core network to accommodate growth from video and other bandwidth-intensive applications.

100 Gbps networks are seen by many as a logical progression from the current standard of 10 Gbps Ethernet. Of note, Verizon Business also is working on upgrading its major routes in the United States to 100 Gbps.

Read the release.

Qwest Unveils 40 Mbps/20 Mbps Service

Jesse Ward — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:34:20 +0000

Qwest announced today that it is doubling its top Internet download speeds in some areas, a move designed to cater to the next-generation customer and keep up with competitive cable offerings.

Leveraging VDSL2, Qwest will initially roll out the service in its Denver, Tucson, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis/St. Paul markets. In the coming months, Qwest plans to introduce these services to select areas within 23 markets in New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. This technology expands on Qwest’s fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) deployment, which has reached more than 2 million customers in its local service region.

Qwest is effectively offering two new pricing tiers. The first tier offers 40 Mbps downstream/5 Mbps upstream for $99.99 per month bundled with a home phone package; an alternative tier offers speeds of 40 Mbps downstream/20 Mbps upstream for $109.99/month also bundled with a home phone. In addition, existing FTTN customers that subscribe to a 7 Mbps, 12 Mbps or 20 Mbps service will be able to upgrade their upstream speed to 5 Mbps for $5.

“Faster download speeds are important, but upload speeds are getting more attention,” said Neil E. Cox, executive vice president of Qwest Product and IT. ““By increasing connection speeds in both directions, Qwest is poised to support user-generated content and simultaneous high-bandwidth applications, like multiple online video streams and downloads or multiple players of online video games.”

View the release.

Qwest Takes Long-Distance Network off the Block

Jesse Ward — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:45:04 +0000

Qwest announced this morning that it is retracting the sale of its long-haul network after failing to attract a sufficient bid. Its long-haul network serves as a wholesale business, carrying long-distance voice and Internet traffic for other phone carriers.

According to reports in The Wall Street Journal, Qwest was seeking $2 billion to $3 billion, but offers totaled less than $1 billion.

“Although there was significant interest in this process from prospective buyers, the company and its board of directors have determined that the long-distance network asset holds far more value to Qwest shareholders, and is more strategically important to Qwest and its customers than is the alternative of pursuing a transaction,” the company said in a release.

Qwest is experiencing competition from wireless and cable companies and landline loss, but it lacks a mobile phone unit to compensate for the decline in customers.

The nation’s third largest telephony provider is saddled with $560 million in debt maturing in 2009, and another roughly $2.2 billion due in 2010. Despite the news, Qwest affirmed its 2009 financial outlook in this morning’s release.

Qwest initially put its long-haul network up for sale in late March.