Seems like a loss waiting to happen. I hope they step up and get off the copper line bandwagon, fiber is where its at and Att/verizon are wayyy ahead.
We dropped 90% of our land lines and switched to VOIP over fiber, dropped our bill per month by more than half.
CenturyTel to buy Qwest for $22.4 billion
Summary
CenturyTel agreed to buy Qwest Communications International in a $10.6 billion all-stock deal (plus $11.8 billion debt), the companies announced.
Topics
CenturyTel agreed to buy Qwest Communications International in a $10.6 billion all-stock deal, the companies announced Thursday. CenturyTel will also assume $11.8 billion of Qwest debt, making the merger worth about $22.4 billion, one of the biggest in telecom history.
Qwest and CentruryTel are two of the biggest landline phone companies in the country, with combined network assets in about 40 states. The deal comes as Qwest, which abandoned its wireless efforts years ago, has struggled to keep up competitively with other former Baby Bell companies AT&T and Verizon Communications. While these companies do not compete directly when it comes to traditional consumer phone service, they do compete in the business service market.
Qwest, which provides broadband and phone service to consumers in sparsely populated states throughout the West, has struggled over the years to compete with its cable counterparts. As other phone companies focused on building a wireless network, Qwest abandoned its wireless efforts. And while AT&T and Verizon have upgraded their networks with fiber and have begun offering bundled TV service, Qwest has chosen not to invest heavily in new infrastructure.
Things were different some years back. Qwest had built an extensive fiber-optic nationwide network and was a Wall Street darling in the 1990s when the company's value soared to over $60 billion. Then the telecom bubble burst toward the end of the 1990s, and Qwest's fortunes took a turn for the worse. The company was plagued by accounting scandals and its CEO was forced to resign.
For more on this story, read CenturyTel makes $22.4 billion bid for Qwest on CNET News.
Just In
Mine is under $5 a month since I rarely make and receive phone calls to my family. I make and receive no phone calls to others. For making such a phone call (rarely), I use an Internet relay service due to my hearing impairment. But I have to tell relay operators to not announce or explain relay (but I didn't) because most businesses won't accept relay calls, but my call did went through without a single hang-up. (By "some," I mean that if I am going to cancel a subscription service, this will be the last resort if they don't accept canceling by e-mail.)
Oh Lord help us. I picture Century Tel's central switching system with tin cans and string. It makes us dial 1+area code for some numbers in our area code, and prohibits us from dialing 1+area code in others--with no way of deciding which without a cheat sheet. So all the amazing 21st century telephone equipment we have for redialing and response dialing is worthless.
Join the conversation!
The best of ZDNet, delivered
ZDNet Newsletters
Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox
Vendor Showcase
Facebook Activity
