looking for a better carrier agreement since late February. We’ve heard that they talked to Verizon, as well as AT&T. They have ended up with the most sensible option, Verizon, in a five-year agreement which will begin this summer. The catch is that they might not really be an MVNO anymore. The deal between the two companies provides for a bundling of services. In addition to supplying resold wireless minutes, Qwest also specializes in home phone lines and Internet access. Qwest customers will now be able to bundle those services with a Verizon Wireless account. The second paragraph of the press release makes Qwest’s mobile days look grim:
Under the agreement, Qwest customers will have access to the full line of Verizon Wireless handsets, smartphones and BlackBerry devices, as well as high-speed broadband wireless services for e-mail, Internet access and multimedia services. Residential customers will be able to choose “wireless only” and be billed directly by Verizon Wireless, or include Verizon Wireless service as part of a Qwest bundle with their home phone, Internet and video services, and receive one bill from Qwest for all services.The agreement also calls for collaboration on bids for enterprise and government wireless contracts. While there is no explicit mention of this anywhere, the implication of the press release seems to be that Qwest wireless customers will become Verizon Wireless customers. Any Qwest customers out there want to comment on this?]]>
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