U S WEST, Inc. was a Regional Bell Operating Company, one of seven "Baby Bells" that were spawned by the
antitrustUnited States antitrust law is the body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are designed to encourage competition in the marketplace....
breakup of
AT&TAT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies...
in 1983. It provided telephone and data service to several Pacific Northwest and mountain states. It was acquired by
Qwest Communications InternationalQwest Communications International, Inc. is a large telecommunications carrier. Qwest provides local service in 14 western U.S...
on June 30, 2000 in what some economists have charged as a hostile takeover. Prior to the publicly announced merger, U S WEST was traded publicly under ticker symbol "USW." The company headquarters was located at 1801 California Street in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, the present-day company headquarters of Qwest.
Until 1990, U S WEST was a holding company with three subsidiary Regional Bell operators: Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph (or Mountain Bell; based in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
),
Northwestern BellNorthwestern Bell Telephone Company served the states just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.- Early beginnings :Northwestern Bell's earliest roots begin in Deadwood, South Dakota...
(based in
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
) and
Pacific Northwest BellPacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company provided telephone services in the states of Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho.-Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Company :...
(based in
Seattle, WashingtonSeattle is located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Situated in the western part of Washington State on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about south of the Canada – United States border, it is named after Chief Sealth, of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes...
).
U S WEST, Inc. was a Regional Bell Operating Company, one of seven "Baby Bells" that were spawned by the
antitrustUnited States antitrust law is the body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are designed to encourage competition in the marketplace....
breakup of
AT&TAT&T Corporation, originally the American Telephone & Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies...
in 1983. It provided telephone and data service to several Pacific Northwest and mountain states. It was acquired by
Qwest Communications InternationalQwest Communications International, Inc. is a large telecommunications carrier. Qwest provides local service in 14 western U.S...
on June 30, 2000 in what some economists have charged as a hostile takeover. Prior to the publicly announced merger, U S WEST was traded publicly under ticker symbol "USW." The company headquarters was located at 1801 California Street in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, the present-day company headquarters of Qwest.
Until 1990, U S WEST was a holding company with three subsidiary Regional Bell operators: Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph (or Mountain Bell; based in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
),
Northwestern BellNorthwestern Bell Telephone Company served the states just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.- Early beginnings :Northwestern Bell's earliest roots begin in Deadwood, South Dakota...
(based in
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
) and
Pacific Northwest BellPacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company provided telephone services in the states of Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho.-Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Company :...
(based in
Seattle, WashingtonSeattle is located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Situated in the western part of Washington State on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about south of the Canada – United States border, it is named after Chief Sealth, of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes...
). On January 1, 1991, U S WEST consolidated Northwestern Bell and Pacific Northwest Bell operations into those of Mountain Bell, renaming it
U S WEST Communications, Inc., becoming the first Baby Bell to consolidate operations of its Bell Operating Companies (
BellSouthBellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
with its
BellSouth TelecommunicationsBellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. is the Bell Operating Company of AT&T that serves the southeastern United States. BellSouth Telecommunications was formed on January 1, 1992 when BellSouth merged its operating companies, Southern Bell and South Central Bell, into one entity.BellSouth...
subsidiary being the other).
U S WEST served most parts of
ArizonaThe State of Arizona is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. The capital and largest city is Phoenix. The second largest city is Tucson, followed in size by the four Phoenix metropolitan area cities of Mesa, Glendale, Chandler, and Scottsdale.Arizona was the 48th and...
,
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
,
IdahoIdaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans." Idaho was admitted to the Union on 3 July 1890 as the 43rd state....
,
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
,
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Inhabited by Native American populations for many centuries, it has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S...
,
UtahUtah is a western state of the United States. It was the 45th state admitted to the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80 percent of Utah's 2,736,424 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering around Salt Lake City. In contrast, vast expanses of the state are nearly uninhabited, making...
, and
WyomingWyoming is a state in the Western United States. The majority of the state is dominated by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountain West, while the easternmost section of the state includes part of a high elevation prairie region known as the High Plains. While the tenth largest...
(formerly Mountain Bell area);
IowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of...
,
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
,
NebraskaNebraska is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha....
,
North DakotaNorth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America; on the Canadian border halfway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the U.S.; it is the 3
rd least populous, with just over 641,481 residents as...
and
South DakotaSouth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota was carved out of the southern half of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889...
(formerly Northwestern Bell area); and
IdahoIdaho is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans." Idaho was admitted to the Union on 3 July 1890 as the 43rd state....
,
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
and
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
(formerly Pacific Northwest Bell area).
U S WEST's Accomplishments
U S WEST Communications became a pioneer in the introduction and rapid system-wide implementation of telephone technologies designed by Bellcore (now
Telcordia TechnologiesTelcordia Technologies, formerly Bell Communications Research, Inc. or Bellcore, is a telecommunications research and development company based in the United States created as part of the 1982 Modification of Final Judgment that broke up American Telephone & Telegraph.- History :The company was...
) in the 1980s and 1990s. Their lead in this push became one that many other Regional Bell Operating Companies had to scramble to keep up with.
Much of U S WEST's success in this endeavor was for multiple reasons; including their then-innovative use of "test-markets" for staggered roll-outs of new calling features in middle-sized cities such as
Boise, IdahoBoise is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Idaho. Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho as well as the county seat of Ada County...
;
Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and is the county seat of Hennepin County. The city lies on both banks of the Mississippi River, just north of the river's confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Saint Paul, the state's capital. Known as the Twin Cities,...
; and
Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the fifth most populous city in the United States...
before releasing them on a wider scale. (They were the first communications provider to use this strategy called beta-testing, a term used for many years in the software development industry). Their geographic presence featured telephone switching equipment that had been constructed fairly recent to the time frame, thereby requiring fewer upgrades. Their service area was also experiencing population growth at a tremendous rate, tripling their subscriber-base in a short time and increasing revenues.
U S WEST Communications was the first local telephone company to offer
Caller IDCaller ID, known also as caller identification , or more properly calling number identification , is a telephone service, available on POTS lines, that transmits a caller's number to the called party's telephone equipment during the ringing signal, or when the call is being set up but before the...
service in 1991; nearly four years before any other local telco could do so. They were the first US telco to upgrade their PSTN to electronic switching before 1990 and they were the first to offer residential and business ISDN and later, DSL services to their customers by 1997. US West was also briefly in the cable business with its purchase of Continental Cablevision in 1996, creating
MediaOneMediaOne Group was a media/cable TV company that was formed in 1995 by U S WEST, Inc. In order to segregate its regulated telephone service from its unregulated cable TV businesses, it separated their assets and businesses into two groups named U. S. West Communications Group and U. S. West Media...
(which was later spun off).
As a result of its rapid "bring-to-market" abilities and continued success in the advances in technology, the company quickly adopted a new slogan— "Life's better here."
Criticisms of U S WEST
U S WEST was accused of failing to meet service needs within a reasonable time frame and of practicing predatory billing and collection methods. While the company often claimed that subscriber demands were often greater than their ability to fulfill orders, many critics pointed to high profit margins, spending on bring-to-market technology and lackluster investment in customer support.
The company was fined multiple times by the State of
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
for these practices during the 1990s. U S WEST was also, at several times, involved in smaller litigation with other states within its service area for similar complaints from customers.
Qwest,
MCIMCI, Inc. was an American telecommunications subsidiary of Verizon Communications that is headquartered in Ashburn, unincorporated Loudoun County, Virginia...
and smaller CLECs who had recently been allowed to offer local service within U S WEST's service area (as a result of the Telecommunications Act of 1996) complained to the
FCCThe Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President...
that U S WEST was uncooperative in releasing their formerly owned lines to these new companies. These types of complaints landed U S WEST in court yet again and offered the complex question of whether or not the government could legally offer the sale of owned property to other companies in the event of
deregulationDeregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or simplification of government rules and regulations that constrain the operation of market forces.Deregulation is the removal or...
.
The "merger"
Reports by
The Denver PostThe Denver Post is a daily newspaper and online website published in Denver, Colorado, United States, and the sole major newspaper in Denver. It ranks in the top 50 largest-circulation newspapers in the United States, with an average weekday circulation of 255,452...
and the
Rocky Mountain NewsThe Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427...
in 1996 revealed that
CLECsA Competitive Local Exchange Carrier , in the United States, is a telecommunications provider company that competes with other, already established carriers ....
lodged complaints with the FCC against U S WEST, including multiple complaints from Qwest Communications, Inc. The complaints alleged U S WEST refused to cooperate with provisions of the
Telecommunications Act of 1996The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications law in nearly 62 years, amending the Communications Act of 1934.-Prior regime:...
. Specifically, U S WEST either neglected or seriously delayed release of "bundled loops" and had, through those actions, made it extremely difficult for companies to provide local telephone service to its customers; Qwest already provided long-distance service to its customers, but needed local service.
Other companies began following suit, and charged U S WEST with monopoly-like or anti-trust type behavior. Courts were slow to do much about this because at the time, the full "letter of the law" of the 1996 Act had no precedence.
During the winter of 1999-2000, U S WEST announced publicly that it had received an unsolicited offer by Qwest Communications to buy U S WEST. At the time, U S WEST had been attempting to merge with
Global CrossingGlobal Crossing Limited is a telecommunications company that provides computer networking services worldwide. It maintains a large backbone and offers transit and peering links, VPN, leased lines, audio and video conferencing, long distance telephone, managed services, dialup, colocation and VoIP,...
, Inc and for months this deal had been stalled through the SEC and was earning both companies a lot of negative press.
At the time, U S WEST publicly refused this request and derided it in the local press. Qwest, unable to gain U S WEST's consent in a merger, purchased so much U S WEST stock that they then were able to perform a hostile takeover of the
Board of DirectorsA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. The body sometimes has a different name, such as board of trustees, board of governors, board of managers, or executive board...
; this was announced in March 2000.
On June 30, 2000, the company was "merged" by order of the new board.
U S WEST CEO
Solomon TrujilloSolomon Dennis "Sol" Trujillo is an American businessman. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications company...
resigned officially. After stints at Graviton and
Orange SAOrange is the brand used by France Télécom for its mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries. The brand was created in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom's UK mobile phone network, which was acquired by France Télécom in August 2000. In 2006, the company's ISP operations,...
, Trujillo in 2005 went to his most recent position, as CEO of the Australian telecommunications provider
TelstraTelstra or Telstra Corporation Ltd , is an Australian telecommunications and media company, formerly owned by the Australian government...
(resigned from Telstra February 2009).
After the merger, the combined company was renamed Qwest Communications International, Inc., with the Bell Operating Company being renamed Qwest Corporation.
See also
- Northwestern Bell
Northwestern Bell Telephone Company served the states just north of the Southwestern Bell area, including: Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.- Early beginnings :Northwestern Bell's earliest roots begin in Deadwood, South Dakota...
- Pacific Northwest Bell
Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company provided telephone services in the states of Oregon, Washington, and northern Idaho.-Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Company :...
- RBOC