Qwest's service problems no great mystery

By David Rohde
Network World, 11/15/99

Folks in the carrier industry like to live life the hard way, and Qwest - the new national carrier that lately has been struggling to meet users' installation dates - is no exception.

When Qwest burst onto the scene two years ago, it seemed to have a well-defined mission. Jeff Crowder, a project director at Virginia Tech University, recalls hearing a Qwest official at the time promise the carrier would concentrate on high-capacity data transport with free voice as a possible add-on. The Qwest official then added: "If we ever go out and sell circuit-switched voice, somebody please shoot me."

But in mid-1998, Qwest contradicted itself and bought long-distance carrier LCI International, which owned traditional Nortel Networks DMS telephony central office switches and some older Newbridge packet data switches.

Qwest eventually replaced the Newbridge equipment with an Ascend (now Lucent) frame relay/ATM net - and installed Cisco's gigabit switch routers to anchor its ultra-high-speed IP network. But when Qwest took advantage of the WorldCom/MCI merger by stealing away a boatload of MCI salespeople, it told them to feel free to go out and sell what they knew best, including circuit-switched voice and T-1s.

As if that weren't enough, Qwest earlier this year won the bidding to buy US West - a regional Bell operating company - completing its transition to a carrier for all seasons. And in the eyes of regulators, the US West acquisition will make Qwest not just the owner of an RBOC, but an RBOC itself, subject to all the regulatory rigmarole that a Bell company has to deal with.

Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio deserves credit for recognizing that enterprise users need an additional national option - made more clear after the MCI WorldCom/Sprint deal - and that fulfilling that need depends on more than just one kind of service or another.

But here's an ironic footnote in Qwest's headlong rush into providing a full range of telecom services:

On Nov. 4, I was due to speak to Nacchio as a follow-up to my conversations with other Qwest officials as we prepared our story about Qwest's operational problems. At the last minute, Nacchio was called away to an urgent meeting about US West's planned long-distance applications with regulators. It so happens that at that very hour, MCI WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers and Sprint CEO Bill Esrey were appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to justify their merger. I don't know what AT&T CEO Mike Armstrong was doing that morning, but he's spent an awful lot of time recently on the political ramifications of his acquisitions of cable companies.

So there you have it:

The heads of the three companies that may become your biggest choices for comprehensive voice and data contracts - AT&T, Qwest, and WorldCom - all out appeasing politicians rather than concentrating on making sure you get great, innovative services. No wonder underlings at the carriers are constantly huffing and puffing to keep up with service promises!

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