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Technology Stocks : Qwest Communications (Q) (formerly QWST) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MangoBoy who wrote (1243)	5/13/1998 7:44:00 PM
From: MangoBoy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6846

[Qwest & AMERITECH!] Qwest Says It's In Marketing Talks With Other Phone Cos NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Qwest Communications International Inc. (QWST) said it is talking to phone companies about marketing agreements similar to the one it announced last week with U S West Communications Group (USW). Qwest Chief Executive and President Joseph Nacchio declined to name the companies Qwest is talking to or say if they are Baby Bells like U S West, but he acknowledged the company will participate in an announcement with Ameritech Corp. (AIT) Thursday. Nacchio declined to be more specific. Ameritech said the announcement pertains to "an innovative customer service." Experts had speculated that other companies would quickly make deals similar to the marketing arrangement U S West and Qwest have, which provides for the local company to market Qwest's long-distance service. The arrangement has signed up 40,000 customers since it debuted last week, the executives said. AT&T Corp. (T), MCI Communications Corp. (MCIC), three competitive local companies and a trade group have filed suit to block the arrangement. The suit claims the marketing agreement violates the Telecommunications Act by allowing a Bell into the long-distance market before its local market is open to competition. Market watchers expected the agreement to be challenged. U S West Chief Executive and President Solomon Trujillo said his 14-state region has become competitive. "U S West is aggressively opening up its markets," Trujillo said. "We have hundreds of competitors." "I am not surprised by the lawsuit, but I am disappointed," said Trujillo, who defended the arrangement along with Nacchio as perfectly legal. U S West is not providing long-distance service and therefore is not breaking the law, Trujillo said. The long-distance service is provided by Qwest Communications, which is paying U S West an undisclosed fee for signing up the customers. Customers get a rate of 10 cents a minute all the time. "There's nothing in the law that prevents Qwest from providing long-distance service," Nacchio said. Legal challengers say the law bars local monopolies from favoring one long-distance carrier over another, but U S West said it will make it clear to customers that they have a choice of long-distance companies.