Qwest deal with DirecTV adds satellite TV to service

Qwest Communications is putting another arrow into its competitive quiver.

The Denver-based telecommunications company, which provides most Utahns with their home telephone service, is preparing to launch after the first of the year a new joint venture with DirecTV that will allow it to offer digital satellite television services to customers in Utah and the other 13 states in its operating territory.

By Steven Oberbeck
The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_2424400

"We’re simply responding to our customers who have told us they want satellite television included in the bundle of communications service they can get from us," Qwest spokeswoman Barbara Faulhaber said.

Under the arrangement with DirecTV, Qwest will market and provide "front-line" customer support for the co-branded satellite television service that will include marketing, scheduling installation, billing and collection activities.

Qwest also intends to offer discounts to customers who order satellite television as part of a bundle of products that includes its high-speed "DSL" Internet service, Faulhaber said.

Although Faulhaber said Qwest, in teaming up with DirecTV, it is merely responding to its customers, the company nevertheless faces increasing competition throughout its operating territory from companies such as Comcast, which now offers its own residential and business telephone service over its upgraded cable television network.

And in Utah the company has another competitive threat – the emerging UTOPIA network.

UTOPIA is a proposed $340 million fiber-optic-to-the-home network backed financially by 11 Utah municipalities. Its backers believe the network eventually will attract dozens of new telecommunication service providers eager to compete for Qwest’s customers over a state-of-the-art fiber-optic platform.

Arthur L. Brady, executive director of the pro-UTOPIA Utahns for Telecom Choices, said Qwest’s partnership with DirecTV is the kind of response that can be expected as competition for consumer telecommunication dollars increases.

"UTOPIA is by far the largest and most ambitious project of its kind, but we’re seeing a surge in similar community-based broadband projects across the country," Brady said. "Regardless of where the competition comes from, it means more and better services for consumers."

For DirecTV the deal with Qwest offer another avenue to distribute its satellite television service, spokesman Bob Marsocci said. "We are seeing the pay television market become more competitive all the time. We’ve had similar arrangements with Verizon and Bell South and have enjoyed some pretty strong results."

Qwest has profited from such partnership arrangements as well.

Three years ago, Qwest entered into an agreement with Microsoft to market that company’s MSN Internet access over its DSL lines. Qwest/MSN customers are invoiced for the service on their monthly phone bills.

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