Qwest Communications Company
Company Description
In USA Qwest communications began operation in 1996 as telecommunication carrier (Network World, 2001). It is an auxiliary and major functional company of CenturyLink serving fourteen US western states that are: Oregon, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Idaho, and New Mexico. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado at 1801 California Street the second largest building in the city.
The company started to operate as CenturyLink as from April 2011 and is currently ranked as the third largest US telecommunication company (qwest). In the industry it concentrates in telephony, internet, and television. The three segments that the company operates in are wire-less, wire-line, and other services (CNN, 2007). Wire-line services comprise of: voice over long distance, short distance voice, internet and data services, and access services to wholesalers. Wire-less services include: Qwest choice TV, digital television services and other wireless services which it operates in a joint venture with Verizon wireless. Other segment includes real estate and sublease outlets.
The company has been in business for fifteen years and has approximately thirty thousand employees getting revenue of $14 billion as of 2007 (Qwest). However, despite the high revenues the company ranks poorly in fortunes list of attributes compared to other companies. The key attributes that the company ranks poorly and are important in the reputation of the company are in (CNN, 2007): innovation (10); use of corporate assets (10); management quality (10); product quality and services; and long-term investment (10). Considering the fact that it has two state of the art development centres in India and two labour unions, it is expected that of the fortune five hundred companies it would rank higher in the key attributes listed. Instead there are certain factors that result in the poor rankings which in this case are domestic environments and legal regulations.
Domestic Environment and Legal Regulations
The mission of the company is commitment to honesty, integrity, and excellence (qwest). The company is headed by Edward Muller as the Chairman and CEO, Euteneur Joseph as CFO, and Taylor Teresa as the COO. The services offered by the company are in telephony, internet, and television in fourteen western US states. Despite the growing revenues the factors in the domestic environment that have contributed to the low ranking in reputable attributes include (Network World, 2007):
Customer Complains: - There were an allegation that local calls were being switched to long distance calls without customers’ permission which resulted in customers paying more. This resulted in Quest paying $ 1.5 million fine and an agreement where company employees involved in the practice will be instantly dismissed.
Scandal in insider-trading and accounting: - In 2001, there were accounting scandals resulting in the company being fined $250 million by SEC (US security and Exchange Commission) (CNN, 2007). Also in 2007 there were cases of insider-trading by some employees and managers resulting in many of them being convicted.
NSA phone tap refusal: - A magazine—USA Today—reported in 2006 that phone companies had colluded with NSA to tap consumers’ phones. Quest had refused and this prompted them to be refused government contracts which affected them greatly.
However, from April, 2011 the company has been operating as CenturyLink having being acquired a year before. The main operating units in the company are: Qwest LD corp.; Qwest Corporation; and Qwest Communications, LLC (quest). The legal regulations in the company are:
- Acceptable use policies that involves usage and application of the company’s networks
- Privacy policies that cover the collection and protection of customer information including website visitors
- Disclamer, Trademark, and Copyright notices that describe ownership of the company and provides avenues of rights infringement as per the Digital Millenum Copyright Act
- Terms and Conditions regulations where all subsidiary operating bodies are guided by rules in selling their retail services and products to consumers
- User and Payment regulations which governs online billing and payment services
- Online security which prevent against fraud and consumer protection when offline.
References
CNN (2007). List of Company’s best and worst admired in 2006 at:
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2006/best_worst/worst2.html
Network World (December 10th, 2001). Network World. Salt Lake City: IDG Network World vol. 18-50. Pp. 32-37
Quest Communications Website at:
http://www.qwest.com/
