Qwest-CenturyTel consumer strategies face questions

It could be another year before CenturyTel's merger with Qwest Communications closes, but it is already clear that some of the most critical strategic decisions the combined company will need to make revolve around consumer services -- and how effectively the company can leverage these services into multiplay bundles to stave of cable TV competition.

But how pervasively that scale can be leveraged in all areas of the combined operation remains to be proven. In the past week, much media coverage of the deal has portrayed it as a merger of landline telephone companies. That common link in a declining market is certainly not the only way these two companies would like to be known, but in other consumer segments, such as video and wireless, it is unclear on what the true identity of the merged firm will be based.