"We want to accelerate deployment of broadband and 
Internet services out of region, and we want to 
aggressively grow services in-region," explained US 
West leader Sol Trujillo. 

To consumers, the combination promises such offerings 
as movies over phone lines, e-mail over wireless phones 
and computerized help throughout homes and businesses. 
...
"We've been building the fastest, next generation 
superhighway of a network," said Lew Wilks, Qwest's 
president for Internet and multimedia products. "US 
West has been building the next generation of off 
ramps" to bring that backbone capacity to homes and 
offices.

"If (Qwest CEO) Joe Nacchio's smart, he'll make US 
West the demo system for what he wants to do," said 
columnist Jim Seymour of TheStreet.com. "It could 
almost embarrass the other RBOCs (regional Bell 
telephone companies) into being real companies."

They can't wait to get started, said Joe Zell, Wilks' 
counterpart at US West Interprise. "Already we can 
complete each other's sentences."

For all the grief US West has taken about service 
levels, Zell said, it is the unqualified leader in 
deploying high-speed digital subscriber line service. 
Analysts agreed that US West's deal with Qwest provides 
the financial and technical capacity to make DSL more 
widely available.
...
While other regional Bell companies installed a lower-
cost, lower-speed DSL, US West's product runs at 7 to 
8 megabits per second, fast enough to download movies, 
Seymour said.
...
Products for the rest of us include a new WebPhone for 
e-mail and simple browsing; Web2Go, a hybrid wireless 
device; and WebVision, "WebTV on steroids" for Net 
surfing and phone answering without leaving one's couch.

On the business side, application service provision -- 
in which software companies license their products for 
just-in-time delivery over Qwest's networks -- will soon 
be available to US West's 25 million customers.
...
"We will be a competitive force, and I believe the 
regulators will see it that way," he said.

Much of the money the new Qwest plans to make will 
come from growth in markets including 30 European cities 
and 150 U.S. communities the company will serve. 

The emphasis in Sunday's announcement was on the 
technology of the next century, based on the Internet's 
way of moving information. Both companies have 
aggressively pursued data networking, using new 
technologies to zap huge amounts of information that is
transforming how businesses work.

Jim Seymour of TheStreet.com, an online investing 
newsletter, predicted a smooth merger because both firms 
are headquartered in downtown Denver. "I think it's going 
to be pretty easy to get the two companies together," he 
said.