Qwest Betting on the Bundle

Wireless Week reports on Qwest's MVNO efforts after it "decided to sell its wireless assets and migrate its wireless subscribers off its existing network and onto Sprint's network" two years ago.

According to the article, Qwest "served about 1 million subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2002, but that number dropped to 754,000 in the fourth quarter of 2004 and dwindled further to just 748,000 in the third quarter of 2005. However, of those 748,000 subscribers, 4,000 were new adds."

Weston Henderek at Current Analysis thought "the company has weathered the transition; it is starting to reverse its trend of losing customers so it is finally in a position to change its momentum."

Qwest has a couple of popular services, such as its One-Number Service that "allows subscribers to have a single number for their landline and wireless phone and forward calls from the landline phone to the wireless phone seamlessly," and "a single voicemail box – called the Voice Mail Link – for both landline and wireless phone calls."

Henderek believed "both services put Qwest in a good position to offer customers a bundled package and differentiate themselves from other telecom providers." He said, "These things make Qwest's bundle more compelling than traditional bundling of services."

Henderek added, "Qwest can tie into Sprint's PowerVision network and should be able to offer the same services, except for the things that Sprint offers exclusively. That's a compelling mix in the long run, especially when compared to the other MVNOs."