Qwest

Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

On April 22, 2010, CenturyLink announced it would acquire Qwest in a stock transaction. The merger closed on April 1, 2011. Qwest began doing business as CenturyLink in August 2011.

Qwest provided voice, Internet backbone data services, and digital television in some areas. It operated in three segments: Wireline Services, Wireless Services, and Other Services. The Wireline Services segment provided 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 was achieved by a partnership with Verizon Wireless. Qwest also partnered with DirecTV to provide digital television service to its customers. In Phoenix, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Omaha, Qwest offered Qwest Choice TV (later also known as Qwest Digital Television), an IPTV service over DSL. This service was retired in October 2008 (after being no longer available to new customers in May 2008), leaving DirecTV as the only TV service Qwest provided. Qwest Choice TV customers were moved to DirecTV. The Other Services segment primarily involved the sublease of real estate assets, such as space in office buildings, warehouses, and other properties.

Qwest Communications also provided long-distance services and broadband data, as well as voice and video communications globally. The company sold 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 was headquartered in Denver, Colorado at 1801 California Street, in the second tallest building in Denver at 53 stories. The majority of Qwest occupational or non-management employees were represented by two labor unions; the Communications Workers of America and in Montana, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Qwest also had software development centers in Bangalore and Noida (New Delhi), India called Qwest Software Services.

Founded in 1996 by Philip Anschutz, Qwest began in an unconventional way. Anschutz, who owned the Southern Pacific Transportation Company at the time, established the subsidiary Southern Pacific Telecommunications Company and 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 1997, the Southern Pacific Transportation Company merged with Union Pacific, but the telecom assets were kept separate from the railroad merger with Union Pacific. The telecom company was renamed Qwest and became a publicly traded company in June 1997.

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 and European-based EUnet International Ltd., 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.

Qwest merged with "Baby Bell" US West on June 30, 2000 through an apparent hostile takeover for $48 billion. Philip Anschutz owned 17.5% of the resulting company. Unlike prior merger transactions between the Baby Bells, US West ceased to exist when it was immediately absorbed into Qwest with all subsidiaries of US West becoming directly owned by Qwest.

As a condition of the merger, Qwest was required to sell off its long-distance operations in the 14-state boundary in which it provided local telephone services. They were eventually sold to Touch America. In 2003, Qwest acquired Touch America from 360networks after Touch America filed for bankruptcy. The acquisition ended ongoing disputes between the two companies in which Touch America alleged Qwest continued to illegally sell long-distance services within the former US West region.