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| company_slogan = Get Qwest. Get Nimble.™
| company_slogan = Get Qwest. Get Nimble.™
| services = [[Telephony]]<br />[[Internet]]<br />[[Television]]
| services = [[Telephony]]<br />[[Internet]]<br />[[Television]]
| market cap = {{decrease}} [[United States dollar|US$]]12,528,902,900 (2007)
| market cap = {{decrease}} [[United States dollar|$]]12,528,902,900 (2007)
| revenue = {{decrease}} US$13,778,000,000 (2007)
| revenue = {{decrease}} $13.778 billion (2007)
| operating_income = {{increase}} US$1,730,000,000 (2007)
| operating_income = {{increase}} $1.730 billion (2007)
| net_income = {{increase}} US$2,917,000,000 (2007)
| net_income = {{increase}} $2.917 billion (2007)
| assets = {{increase}} US$22,532,000,000 (2007)
| assets = {{increase}} $22.532 billion (2007)
| equity = {{increase}} US$563,000,000 (2007)
| equity = {{increase}} $563 million (2007)
| num_employees = 30,000 (2010)
| num_employees = 30,000 (2010)
| homepage = http://www.qwest.com/
| homepage = http://www.qwest.com/

Revision as of 03:02, 15 September 2010

For other uses, see Qwest (disambiguation).
Qwest Communications International, Inc
Company typePublic (NYSE: Q)
IndustryTelecommunications
Founded1996
FounderPhillip Anschutz
HeadquartersUnited States Denver, Colorado, USA
Key people
Edward Mueller (Chairman, CEO)
Joseph J. Euteneuer(CFO)
Teresa A. Taylor(COO)
ServicesTelephony
Internet
Television
RevenueDecrease $13.778 billion (2007)
Increase $1.730 billion (2007)
Increase $2.917 billion (2007)
Total assetsIncrease $22.532 billion (2007)
Total equityIncrease $563 million (2007)
Number of employees
30,000 (2010)
Websitehttp://www.qwest.com/
Footnotes / references
[1]

Qwest Communications International, Inc. (pronounced like "quest", Template:PronEng) (NYSE: Q) is a large telecommunications carrier. 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, 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 center in Bangalore, India called Qwest Software Services.

History

Founded in 1996 by Philip Anschutz, Qwest began in an unconventional way. Anschutz, who owned the Southern Pacific Railroad at the time, began installing the first all-digital, fiber-optic infrastructure along his railroad lines and connecting them into central junctions in strategic locations to serve businesses with high-speed data and T1 services. In 1998, the Southern Pacific Railroad was merged into the Union Pacific, in which Qwest gained access to UP's railroad lines to lay fiber-optic cable for its telecom network. At that time Anshutz had a contract with MCI to lay nationwide fiber for them along the railway lines, he took advantage of this situation and laid his own fiber along with that of MCI.

Qwest Communications grew aggressively, acquiring internet service provider SuperNet in 1997, followed by the acquisition of LCI, a low cost long distance carrier (located in Dublin, Ohio and McLean, Virginia) in 1998, and followed again by the acquisition of Icon CMT, a web hosting provider, also in 1998. This launched Qwest as not only a provider of high speed data to the niche market of corporate customers, but also a quick-growing residential and business long distance customer base that it quickly merged into its data service.

USWEST Corporate Logo, 1984-2000

Qwest merged with "Baby Bell" US West on June 30, 2000 through an apparent hostile takeover. (See article on US West for more information); Philip Anschutz owns 17.5% of the resulting company.

As a condition of this merger, Qwest had to spin off its long distance operations actually located within the Bell Operating Company boundaries of Qwest Corporation. The resulting company was named Touch America, Inc.

Corporate structure

Qwest Communications International, Inc. is the holding company. It is the parent company of many more entities, but those listed below are the main operating units:

Qwest Corporation is an incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC), and since it was part of the AT&T Bell Operating System, it is also a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC or BOC). Qwest Corporation serves an in-region local market which consists of the 14 states in which the pre-merger US WEST provided local telephone service. Qwest Corporation also provides administrative and operation services such as financial, human resources, IT, and legal to the Qwest family of companies — the Qwest affiliates.

Qwest LD Corp. is an affiliate of Qwest Corporation that resells long-distance service within the 14 state RBOC region.

Qwest Communications Company, LLC is an affiliate of Qwest Corporation that can provide local services but currently provides long-distance telephone and long-haul data services. It was the classic pre US West merger entity. Qwest Communications Corporation changed its name and corporate status on January 2, 2009, to a limited liability company. Previously it was known as Southern Pacific Telecommunications Company. Qwest Communications made an agreement with CSX in which it could use its rail lines as a right-of-way for a fiber-optic system. Qwest Communications International, the holding company, took the slogan Ride the Light as a result of this.

Defunct entities

Malheur Home Telephone Company, commonly known as Malheur Bell - Merged into its corporate parent, Qwest Corporation December 14, 2009

Qwest Interprise America - Merged into Qwest Service Corporation in 2007 then moved to Qwest Communications Company, LLC

Qwest Service Corporation - While still a legal entity, it previously supplied the administrative and operation services Qwest Corporation currently provides.

Customer complaints and consumer issues

One of the historically significant mass complaints regarding Qwest involved allegations that the then-long-distance-only company switched local telephone service customers over to Qwest's long-distance service without their permission, an illegal practice known as slamming. In July 2000, Qwest paid a $1.5 million fine to the Federal Communications Commission to resolve slamming complaints. In April 2001, they paid a $350,000 fine to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Consumer Protection after the state cited them for deceptive advertising and slamming practices.[2] The company's settlements included a requirement that all of its sales employees sign a pledge stating that slamming was barred-and conditions for dismissal from Qwest employment.

In May 2007, the telecommunications sector as measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) scored Qwest and Verizon with increases to 72, but Cox dropped six points to 70 and AT&T (70) and Comcast fell to 67.[3][4]

As of October 9, 2009, Qwest posted an item on its company awards page[5] in direct violation of Consumers Union's strict non-commercial use policy, which forbids the use of CU's name or information for commercial purposes.

In April 2010, Qwest Communications has launched a new unified communications service platform that allows enterprise businesses, government agencies and educational institutions to merge traditional telephony networks with IP-based data networks.[6]

Accounting and insider trading irregularities

The company was also involved in accounting scandals, and was recently fined $250 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), to be split into two $125 million payments due to the poor state of Qwest's current financial health. Among the transactions in question were a series of deals from 1999-2001 with Enron's broadband division which may have helped Enron conceal losses. In 2005, former Chairman and CEO Joseph Nacchio, former President and COO Afshin Mohebbi and seven other former Qwest employees have been accused of fraud in a civil lawsuit filed by the SEC. Separately, Nacchio was convicted of 19 counts of insider trading in Qwest stock on April 19, 2007.[7]

Perhaps the most visible scandal affected Qwest in April 2007 when the former CEO was convicted of insider trading. Joseph P. Nacchio (born June 22, 1949, in Brooklyn, New York), was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Qwest Communications International from 1997 to 2002. He was convicted of 19 counts of insider trading in Qwest stock on April 19, 2007. On July 27, 2007, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison. His federal register number is 33973-013. Federal JudgeEdward Nottingham also ordered Nacchio to pay a $19 million fine and forfeit $52 million he gained in illegal stock sales. As of October 15, 2007 he was free on bail, appealing his conviction on the basis that the U.S. government retaliated against Qwest for his refusal to give customer data to the National Security Agency. On March 17, 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned his conviction on the basis of defense expert witness testimony that was improperly excluded, and ordered a new trial before a different trial judge. On February 25, 2009, Nacchio lost his appeal in a 5-4 ruling by the 10th U.S. Court of Appeals. He was ordered to immediately begin serving his six-year prison sentence. His defense team made an unsuccessful attempt to petition the United States Supreme Court. Nachio reported to the Federal Prison in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania on April 14, 2009 to serve his sentence.

Qwest's original slogan was "Ride The Light", which was meant to portray the company as technologically advanced. In 2002, Richard C. Notebaert, who took over as CEO that year, introduced the "Spirit of Service" campaign which promotes the company as being refocused on customer satisfaction.

In 2004, Qwest became the first Regional Bell operating company (RBOC) in the United States to offer Standalone DSL (also known as Naked DSL), i.e. DSL Internet service that does not require the customer to have local landline phone service.

Qwest also offers a cable system in Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Omaha. This service is called Qwest Choice TV. As of October 2008, Qwest Choice TV customers were in the process of being migrated to DirecTV.

Refusal for NSA spying

In May 2006, USA Today reported that millions of telephone calling records had been handed over to the United States National Security Agency by AT&T Corp., Verizon, and BellSouth since September 11, 2001. This data has been used to create a database of all international and domestic calls. Qwest was allegedly the lone holdout, despite threats from the NSA that their refusal to cooperate may jeopardize future government contracts,[8] a decision which has earned them praise from those who oppose the NSA program.[9]

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor on August 17, 2006 ruled that the government's domestic eavesdropping program is unconstitutional and ordered it ended immediately. The Bush Administration has filed an appeal in the case which has yet to be heard in court. (*It should be noted that the program actually targeted International calls coming into and out of the county. They were not Domestic-to-Domestic calls.)[10]

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, who was convicted of insider trading in April 2007, alleged in appeal documents that the NSA requested that Qwest participate in its wiretapping program more than six months before September 11, 2001. Nacchio recalls the meeting as occurring on February 27, 2001. The United States Supreme Court denied bail pending appeal the same day.[11][12]Nacchio further claims that the NSA cancelled a lucrative contract with Qwest as a result of Qwest's refusal to participate in the wiretapping program.[13] Nacchio surrendered April 14, 2009 to a federal prison camp in Schuylkill, Pennsylvania to begin serving a six-year sentence for the insider trading conviction. The United States Supreme Court denied bail pending appeal the same day.[14][15]

A social media experiment and website covering the Qwest holdout, Thank you Qwest dot Org, built by Netherlands-based Webmaster Richard Kastelein and American Expatriate Journalist Chris Floyd, was covered by the CNN Situation Room,[16] USA Today,[17] New York Times,[18][19] International Herald Tribune,[20] Denver Post,[21][22] News.com,[23] and the Salt Lake Tribune.[24]

On April 22, 2010, CenturyLink announced it would acquire Qwest in a stock-for-stock transaction. If approved, CenturyLink shareholders will hold a 50.5% share of ownership in the combined company, while Qwest shareholders would own the remaining 49.5%. The valuation of CenturyLink's purchase as of April 21, 2010 is $22.4 billion, including the assumption of $11.8 billion of outstanding debt held by Qwest as of December 31, 2009. Assuming the approval of shareholders from both companies and regulatory approvals from various state and federal agencies, the transaction is expected to be complete by the first half of 2011.[25][26]

Namesake buildings

The Qwest corporate headquarters in Denver.

Qwest currently owns the naming rights to the following buildings:

See also

References

  1. ^ "Qwest Communications International, Inc". Google Finance. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  2. ^ "Qwest to pay fine for slamming". Denver Business Journal. 2001-04-27. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  3. ^ Staff (2007-05-21). "Qwest and Verizon rate high in customer satisfaction survey". New Mexico Business Weekly. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  4. ^ Butsunturn, Chaat (2007-05-15). "Customer Satisfaction Growth Slows, Many Companies Struggle to Keep Up" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-08-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ News.Qwest.com
  6. ^ Qwest Launches Hosted UC Services Platform
  7. ^ Frosch, Dan (2007-04-20). "Ex-Chief at Qwest Found Guilty of Insider Trading". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  8. ^ Cauley, Leslie (2006-05-11). "NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  9. ^ Smith, Jeff (2006-05-12). "Qwest defies NSA". Rocky Mountain News. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  10. ^ Mears, Bill (2006-08-17). "NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional". CNN. Retrieved 2008-08-07. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12139713
  12. ^ http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=113703#
  13. ^ "Nacchio says feds punished Qwest: report". MarketWatch. 2007-10-13.
  14. ^ http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12139713
  15. ^ http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=113703#
  16. ^ Blitzer, Wolf (2006-05-12). "Surrounding NSA Tracking of Phone Calls". The Situation Room. Retrieved 2008-08-07.
  17. ^ Armour, Stephanie (2005-05-15). "Phone companies' customers offer their take on assisting NSA". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  18. ^ Zellor, Tom (2005-05-15). "Qwest Goes From the Goat to the Hero". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  19. ^ Belson, Ken (2005-05-15). "Qwest's Ex-Chief Is Suddenly Cast as Defender of Privacy". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  20. ^ Zellor, Tom (2005-05-15). "Qwest achieves some customer respect". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  21. ^ "Qwest Stand Wins Praise". Denver Post. 2005-05-15. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  22. ^ "Qwest Finds Favor over NSA Flap". Denver Post. 2005-05-15. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  23. ^ Zellor, Tom (2005-05-15). "Qwest's ex-chief suddenly cast as privacy defender". News.com. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  24. ^ Oberbeck, Steven (2005-05-15). "Phone Snoop Creates Uproar". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
  25. ^ "CenturyLink and Qwest Agree to Merge" (Press release). Monroe, LA & Denver, CO: Qwest Communications International, Inc & CenturyLink. 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
  26. ^ "CenturyLink to buy Qwest for $10.6 billion in stock". Washington, DC: MarketWatch. 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2010-04-22.

Notes

Template:Qwest

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