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Qwest history
Qwest company history timeline
— December 1996: Qwest hires Joe Nacchio as president and CEO.
In 1996 Qwest was negotiating with other long distance providers to buy or lease part of its fiber-optic network.
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.
In December 1997 Qwest announced it would offer IP-based services to users in nine Western cities.
Joseph Nacchio became Qwest's new president and CEO in 1997, after leaving the No.
With Internet usage increasing dramatically in 1997, Qwest made plans to take advantage of the expansion of voice-over-Internet protocol (IP) services.
The company went public as Qwest Communications International, Inc. in 1997.
Later in 1997 Qwest acquired Colorado's largest ISP, SuperNet Inc., for $20 million.
Goldblatt, Henry. "Wild, Wild Qwest." Fortune, June 8, 1998.
In December 1998 Microsoft invested $200 million in Qwest, taking a 1.3 percent minority interest in the company.
Qwest and US West had reached a similar agreement earlier in 1998 that was also challenged.
In mid-1998 Qwest announced it would offer long-distance service in Europe.
Qwest's 1998 revenue was reported at $2.2 billion.
Qwest had reached agreements with Frontier Corp., the fifth-largest long-distance carrier in the United States; WorldCom Inc., the fourth-largest long-distance carrier and the largest Internet access provider with its acquisition of UUNet; and GTE Corp., the largest non-Bell local telephone company. It planned to complete construction on the fiber-optic network in 1998, and would then reach into 92 cities--representing 65 percent of all long-distance traffic in the United States.
Qwest's first national branding campaign, created by advertising firm J. Walter Thompson, was launched in March 1999.
Qwest continued to offer new services, enter into new partnerships, and strengthen existing ones in the latter half of 1999.
The company’s name was changed to CenturyTel in 1999, and recently was changed to CenturyLink.
In April 2000 Qwest announced a new development in its CyberCenter program.
"Phil Anschutz: The Power That Be." Inter@ctive Week, May 1, 2000.
Together with Microsoft it announced the Qwest Business Partner Program, which would offer a wide range of Internet services using the Windows 2000 platform as well as other platforms.
One of the applications it would introduce in 2000 was a practice management application for small doctors' offices.
In the first two months of 2000 the company experienced service problems due to the rapid expansion of its customer base, including frame relay service slowdowns and circuit outages lasting up to 11 days.
Aun, Fred. "Qwest Communications." Sm@rt Partner, May 7, 2001.
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.
In 2001, CenturyTel acquired CSW Net, Inc.
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.
— April 2002: The Securities and Exchange Commission begins an inquiry into Qwest accounting practices.
— June 2002: Nacchio resigns.
— August 2002: Qwest sells its yellow pages business for more than $7 billion.
In 2002 it bought 654,000 phone lines in Missouri and Alabama from Verizon.
In December 2003, CenturyTel acquired the Midwest Fiber Optic Network (MFON) from Level 3 Communications, Inc.
— October 2004: Qwest agrees to pay $250 million to settle allegations by the SEC of “massive financial fraud.”
In 2004, it partnered with EchoStar Communications Corporation for DISH Network multi-channel digital TV.
— December 2005: Federal grand jury indicts Nacchio on 42 criminal counts of insider trading.
— April 2007: Jury convicts Nacchio on 19 counts and acquits him of the others.
And in 2008, it agreed to acquire Embarq Corp., a landline phone service that was spun off by Sprint, for $5.8 billion in stock and a similar amount of Embarq debt.
On July 1, 2009 Embarq, one of the largest independent local exchange carriers in the United States, was acquired by CenturyTel, Inc.
— October 2009: The Supreme Court refuses to hear Nacchio’s appeal of his conviction.
On May 2010, the new corporate name of the combined CenturyTel/Embarq entity became CenturyLink, Inc.
On July 15, 2011, CenturyLink acquired Savvis, Inc., a global provider of cloud infrastructure and hosted IT services.
On October 16, 2012 Savvis acquired ITO Business Division of Ciber thereby adding managed services to the portfolio.
On November 19, 2013, CenturyLink announced the acquisition of Tier 3, a Seattle-based infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform, and advanced cloud management company.
On December 8, 2014, the company announced the acquisition of DataGardens, Inc., a Disaster Recovery as-a-Service (DRaaS) provider.
On March 30, 2016, the company announced the acquisition of netAura, a security services company that focuses on cybersecurity, security information and event management (SIEM), analytics, and vulnerability management.
On November 1, 2017, CenturyLink acquired Level 3 Communications in a deal valued at around $25 billion.
On September 10, 2019, CenturyLink announced the acquisition of Streamroot, a provider of disruptive technology to improve video and static content delivery within bandwidth constrained areas.
On September 14, 2020, CenturyLink, Inc announced that it had changed its name to Lumen Technologies, Inc.
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"Qwest Communications International ." Gale Encyclopedia of E-Commerce. . Retrieved June 22, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/economics/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/qwest-communications-international
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Qwest competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verizon Communications | 1983 | $134.8B | 132,200 | 50 |
| AT&T | 1983 | $122.3B | 230,000 | 3,565 |
| U.S. Cellular | 1983 | $4.2B | 5,000 | - |
| AUTOMATED DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES | - | $284.9K | 5 | - |
| 1998 | $350.0B | 139,995 | 4,791 | |
| Neustar | 1996 | $1.2B | 1,800 | - |
| Vonage | 2001 | $1.4B | 2,400 | 8 |
| Cricket Wireless | 1998 | $1.9B | 221 | 264 |
| Dell | 1984 | $95.6B | 165,000 | 156 |
| HP | 1939 | $53.6B | 53,000 | 493 |
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