Company Histories
US West

Location: Denver, Colorado
Started: 1984
Sold to/Ended: Purchased by Qwest Communications International, 2000

History: US WEST was one of the seven “Baby Bells” formed at the break-up of AT&T in 1984. (The others were Nynex [in New York and New England], Bell Atlantic [Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia], BellSouth and Ameritech [in the Midwest], Southwestern Bell, and Pacific Telesis [in California and Nevada].) US WEST’s territory was the fourteen states of what had been Mountain Bell, Northwestern Bell, and Pacific Northwest Bell (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming). Geographically, this territory covered many more square miles than that of any of the other new companies. However, those miles were extremely difficult to serve, containing the rugged terrain of mountains and deserts and some of the least telephone-plant-friendly weather in the world.

In 1995, US WEST, Inc. divided itself into two nearly equal fully owned companies: US WEST Media Group and the US WEST Communications Group. While the US WEST leadership didn’t talk about the division in this way, this move made the two halves attractive and affordable buyout targets. Sure enough, AT&T paid a premium price for the Media Group in 1998.

After flirting with Global Crossing Ltd. in a merger plan that included the purchase of Frontier Corp. (formerly the Rochester Telephone Co.) in May 1999, US WEST Communications agreed to a buyout by Qwest Communications International in July 1999; the deal was consummated in July 2000.