CenturyLink-Qwest deal enters regulatory home stretch

The CenturyLink-Qwest Communications deal is closing in on obtaining its last few regulatory approvals, including a stamp from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission that could come soon. Besides Minnesota, the last states that need to approve the deal are Washington, Arizona and Oregon.

The deal also still needs to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, but the path to FCC approval was cleared of at least one hurdle this week when competitive service provider and Qwest wholesale customer tw telecom dropped a complaint of opposition to the deal that it filed with the FCC last month. In a new filing this week, tw telecom said it was joining a previous settlement CenturyLink and Qwest negotiated with Integra Telecom, which, among other things, calls for the merged company to continue delivering fair IP peering and wholesale service support and performance reports that Qwest had been providing to them before the merger. CLEC trade group Comptel also filed a letter with the FCC this week urging the agency to take a close look at special access pricing and the leverage CenturyLink-Qwest would have in that sector to ensure that all wholesale and retail customers of the merged company see a “net benefit” from the deal.