Comments on: Qwest, looks at its Bell past, for its future http://gigaom.com/2007/08/12/qwest-looks-at-its-bell-past-for-its-future/ Tracking the Internet Evolution Sun, 07 Sep 2008 11:44:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU hourly 1 By: The GigaOM Interview: Qwest CEO & Chairman Edward Mueller - GigaOM http://gigaom.com/2007/08/12/qwest-looks-at-its-bell-past-for-its-future/#comment-866097 The GigaOM Interview: Qwest CEO & Chairman Edward Mueller - GigaOM Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:00:05 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2007/08/12/qwest-looks-at-its-bell-past-for-its-future/#comment-866097 <p>[...] who at one time was CEO and president of Ameritech (now part of AT&T), replaced Richard Notebaert in August [...]</p> [...] who at one time was CEO and president of Ameritech (now part of AT&T), replaced Richard Notebaert in August [...]

]]> By: Dave Burstein http://gigaom.com/2007/08/12/qwest-looks-at-its-bell-past-for-its-future/#comment-444620 Dave Burstein Mon, 13 Aug 2007 09:28:54 +0000 http://gigaom.com/2007/08/12/qwest-looks-at-its-bell-past-for-its-future/#comment-444620 <p>Om</p> <p>Surprised at your thought "hether it wants to mop-up other smaller regional players, or throw in its lot with one of the two large Bells, Verizon or AT&T." That would imply they are too small to reach economies of scale. But they are a $13B per year company, plenty big to spread their costs and buy in large volume. In the case of Verizon, I have a feeling it got too big, and is therefore less efficient.</p> <pre><code>Qwest merging into AT&T or Verizon is particularly bad public policy. Competition on the Internet backbone has declined drastically, with 4 or 5 companies dominating in the U.S. Prices haven't gone up, but with fewer companies we may have issues of market power. Am I wrong? </code></pre> <p>db</p> Om

Surprised at your thought “hether it wants to mop-up other smaller regional players, or throw in its lot with one of the two large Bells, Verizon or AT&T.” That would imply they are too small to reach economies of scale. But they are a $13B per year company, plenty big to spread their costs and buy in large volume. In the case of Verizon, I have a feeling it got too big, and is therefore less efficient.

Qwest merging into AT&T or Verizon is particularly bad public policy. Competition on the Internet backbone has declined drastically, with 4 or 5 companies dominating in the U.S. Prices haven't gone up, but with fewer companies we may have issues of market power. Am I wrong?

db

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