Qwest is becoming Centurylink

Century Link began running this 60-second commercial on network television multiple times daily in June to ensure that consumers know that Qwest is now part of their company. This commercial is part of their branding strategy along with direct mail, billboards, and print ads.

In the commercial we see symbols of middle-class life such as a two-story house in suburbia and a man jogging down a hill in a well-coiffed neighborhood. Symbols of business, commerce, and success are relayed through scenes of a Japanese office building, an upscale British hotel entrance, and of a busy shopping mall. Warm and fuzzy moments are created when a dog walks down a set of steps with the Seattle skyline in the background, when a young blonde girl is greeted by her father on the front porch of their home where she has been waiting for him to come home, and when a Latino bride and groom are photographed on church steps accompanied by a live mariachi band.

Each of these scenes is united by green slinkies that magically appear and make their way down the stairs en masse. Stairs are conveniently present in each scene as well, perhaps to imply progress. A playful song runs throughout the ad, and a female voice narrates. “People are linked in more ways than ever, and now there’s a new opportunity to stay connected to it all—to better broadband, data, entertainment, and voice technologies. To greater freedom and to more personal service for an even better customer experience.” At this point in the commercial, a scene of two hikers making their way to the top of Red Rocks Amphitheater, appears and from the rocks slides out the text, “Qwest is becoming Century Link.” The camera pans to the sunlit horizon, and the narrator continues, “Introducing Century Link.”

According to this ad, Century Link cares deeply our families and wants us to be connected—whether we’re hiking, shopping, or working.  In addition, with the slinkies appearing in mountains and in cities, Century Link seems to be telling us that connectivity is equally accessible in rural areas as it is in urban areas. However, what we know is that in New Mexico (Along with AK, AZ, KY, VA and WV) the difference in technology availability is greater than 10% of the population. This is calculated by subtracting the percent of the population with access to any technology in rural areas from the percent of the population with access to any technology in urban areas. Another fact is that 55% of our rural communities have the choice of 2 or fewer providers, while 95% of urban areas in NM have the choice of 3 or more providers.

This branding campaign accompanies Centurylink’s $22 billion acquisition of Qwest. Century Link purchased Qwest on April Fool’s Day of 2011, a merger that was approved by the FCC and makes Centurylink the third largest landline operator in the nation behind AT&T and Verizon. With 17 million phone lines and 5 million broadband customers nationwide, Centurylink acquired 535,000 access lines in New Mexico via the merger. Besides the decreased customer service and innovation that traditionally accompanies mergers that decrease market competition, New Mexicans are also impacted by the potential loss of Qwest’s 660 quality job positions pre-merger.

The impact dynamic of the merger’s affect on New Mexico resembles the old business adage “over promise, under commit.” With respect to what we know about telecommunication company mergers, the saying should be adjusted to “over profit, under serve.”

The three largest independent phone company consolidators are Frontier, Windstream, and CenturyTel (Centurylink’s name before the Embarq merger of 2008). Collectively, all three have a history of disappointing their customer base. Internet overcharging schemes, rate increases, extended service outages and slow DSL speeds leave many wondering why companies like Centurylink spend so much time on acquisitions and stockholder dividends and so little time enhancing service to their customers.

In New Mexico, our Public Utilities Commission issued a revealing report on the status of competition for public telecommunications service in Qwest’s New Mexico service area. The problems revealed in that report included Qwest’s wholesale rate for many services being too high and a lack of competition in the market. Mergers typically don’t increase competition—they decrease competition. Centurylink’s acquisition of Qwest will only make these matters worse and the outcomes for consumers are more unfulfilled promises.  No amount of green slinkies dancing down stairs can make up for that.

Media Literacy Project was recently appointed to the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee where we will continue to advocate on behalf of consumer issues.