Qwest Corporation,
doing business as
A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...
CenturyLink QC, is a
Regional Bell Operating Company
A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice against the Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 194 ...
owned by
Lumen Technologies
Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink, Inc.) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, which offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice and managed services through ...
. It was originally named Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company, later becoming known as Mountain Bell, then US West Communications, Inc. from 1991 to 2000. It includes the former operations of
Malheur Bell,
Northwestern Bell and
Pacific Northwest Bell as well.
History
Mountain Bell
Denver Telephone Dispatch Company - 1879
Recent
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
graduates Frederick O. Vaille, and Henry R. Walcott, went to Denver and met a saloonkeeper, Sam Morgan, and together secured 161 customers, enough to warrant a return to Boston to secure a new telephone
franchise from the American Bell Telephone Company.
When the franchise was secured, wires were strung, boys were hired as operators, a switchboard was installed and the Denver Telephone Dispatch Company opened for business on February 24, 1879. The Denver exchange was the seventeenth in the nation, opening just nine days after the Minneapolis exchange. Denver's ''
Rocky Mountain News
The ''Rocky Mountain News'' (nicknamed the ''Rocky'') was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. the Monday–Friday ...
'' reported that "The Telephone Company are adding new subscribers to the system every day."
Building the Colorado Telephone Company - 1881
Soon after the Denver Dispatch Company began operations, the
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...
-owned Colorado Edison Telephone Company began competitive operations. Western Union also began a phone company in
Leadville
Leadville ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory city, statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only List of municipalities in Colorado, incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, Lak ...
.
The Edison Company, with its powerful transmitter, was able to offer service to the nearby towns of
Golden,
Georgetown,
Central City,
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous c ...
, and
Pueblo
Pueblo refers to the settlements of the Pueblo peoples, Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlement ...
.
The competitive battle raged as the Dispatch Company acquired better transmitters and added Golden,
Black Hawk, Georgetown and Central City to their calling area. When the American Bell Company won their patent infringement suit with Western Union, the Bell companies absorbed the Western Union companies. In Denver,
competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indi ...
for local service would remain absent from the market until 1997.
In 1880, Vaille sold two of his four franchise contracts back to American Bell, who sold them to
Horace Tabor in Leadville. In January 1881, Vaille joined a group of Denver business leaders to form the Colorado Telephone Company. Denver Dispatch faded into history when Vaille sold his remaining two Bell contracts to the Colorado Telephone Company. Henry Wolcott was the president of Colorado Telephone, while Vaille stayed on as general manager for three years.
Meanwhile, the Colorado Telephone Company began to grow, as "boomer linemen" strung wire to ranches and farm towns in the flat lands, and to mines and mining towns in the mountains, and along Colorado's front range. Colorado Telephone purchased the Leadville company in 1888.
Rocky Mountain Bell - 1883
The Denver Dispatch Company was less than two years old when the Rocky Mountain Telephone Company began in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
, Utah, with fewer than 100 subscribers. With the financial backing of American Bell, The Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company replaced Rocky Mountain Telephone in 1883. Rocky Mountain Bell immediately began an aggressive campaign to buy nearly every small telephone company in the region, and their operating territory soon covered nearly all of
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
,
Montana
Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
,
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
, and
Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
.
A combination of overspending, careless management, and the logistical difficulties of covering an extremely large, sparsely populated territory would eventually put Rocky Mountain Bell in financial trouble.
Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph - 1911
These business practices stopped in July 17, 1911 when Colorado Telephone and Tri-State Telephone merged to form The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company which purchased the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company on July 20, 1911. Vaille was well aware of Rocky Mountain Bell's problems and he insisted that Colorado Telephone Company managers take over the majority of management positions in the former Rocky Mountain Bell Company territory. Vaille served as a Mountain States director until his death in 1920.
A number of Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph buildings survive and are listed on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
[ (see Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Building (disambiguation))]

MST&T commonly did business as Mountain States Telephone until 1969, when the new Bell System logo came into use and the company began doing business as Mountain Bell. The company provided telephone services in
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
,
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
,
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
,
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
,
Montana
Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...
, Southern
Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
,
Wyoming
Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...
, and the
El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...
, vicinity. Additionally, MST&T acquired a controlling interest in the Malheur Home Telephone Company in
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
, better known as
Malheur Bell. MST&T operated Malheur Bell as a wholly owned independent subsidiary, an arrangement that continued until 2009.
Mountain Bell's operations in
El Paso, Texas
El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...
, were sold to
Southwestern Bell
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as other d.b.a. names in its operating region, which includes Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and portions of Illinois. The company is ...
in 1982.
Prior to 1984, AT&T held an 88.6% stake in Mountain Bell.
Usage of the Mountain Bell name has recently been resumed by Unical Enterprises, who began producing telephones under the Mountain Bell name in 2006. Additionally, the MountainBell.com domain is still active and redirects to the CenturyLink webpage.
From 1929 to 1984 the
Mountain Bell headquarters was located at 931 14th Street in
Denver
Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...
, Colorado. As part of a company-wide real estate savings effort, areas of the building's interior were remodeled in 2009 and 2010, along with the adjoining 930 building, to accommodate employees vacating leased space in the Qwest headquarters building at 1801 California St. In 2023
Lumen Technologies
Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink, Inc.) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, which offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice and managed services through ...
vacated the former
Level 3 Communications
Level 3 Communications, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications and Internet service provider company headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado. It ultimately became a part of CenturyLink (now Lumen Technologies), where Level 3 Pres ...
headquarters campus housing senior leadership and C-level executives offices in Broomfield, Colorado, and relocated them to the Mountain Bell headquarters building after minor interior remodeling.
Post-breakup
In 1984, the
Bell System
The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...
was broken into seven
Regional Bell Operating Companies. US West, Inc. became a holding company for Mountain Bell,
Northwestern Bell, and
Pacific Northwest Bell.
US West Communications
In 1988, US West became the first
Baby Bell
A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice against the Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 19 ...
to have its different Bell Operating Companies carry on business under a single name. US West Communications became a "
d/b/a
A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...
" name for Mountain Bell as well as Northwestern Bell and Pacific Northwest Bell; however, the three companies remained legally separate. The three companies also began using the US West Communications logo, which continued to include the Bell logo.
Bell Operating Companies merge
On January 1, 1991, US West merged its three operating companies. As part of the deal, Northwestern Bell and Pacific Bell were folded into Mountain Bell Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph, the surviving company, changed its name to US West Communications, Inc. on January 2, 1991.
US West Communications was the first local telephone company to offer
Caller ID
Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is ...
service in 1991, nearly four years before any other local
telco could do so. They were the first US telco to upgrade their
PSTN
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists ...
to electronic switching before 1990 and they were the first to offer residential and business
ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. ...
and later,
DSL
Digital subscriber line (DSL; originally digital subscriber loop) is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric di ...
services to their customers by 1997.
US West, since 1984, had been selling telephone equipment under the Northwestern Bell name. In 1992, US West granted Unical Enterprises, who had been producing phones under the "La Phone" brand, the right to become the exclusive licensee to produce telephones under the Northwestern Bell name, which are still produced under the BELL Phones by Northwestern Bell Phones brand.
Sell-off of rural areas
In 1993,
US West
US West, Inc. was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs, also referred to as "Baby Bells"), created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement (''United States v. Western Electric Co., Inc.'' 552 Fed. Supp. 131), a cas ...
began selling off unprofitable rural telephone lines throughout its 14-state region. It retained its telephone directory operations in the areas it sold.
In 1993, US West sold off 10 exchanges in Arizona to three buyers. In 1993,
Pacific Telecom agreed to purchase 45 exchanges in
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
serving 50,000 customers. The sale closed in 1994 and the lines were added to
Eagle Telecommunications. In 1995, it sold several exchanges in
Fremont County, Idaho to Fremont Telcom (which was acquired by
FairPoint in the 2000s). The same year, Pacific Telecom acquired more access lines in Oregon and Washington. In 1996 and 1997, several US West Communications exchanges in
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...
were sold to Golden West Telecommunications. In 1996, Golden West acquired exchanges in
Winner,
Murdo,
Burke
Burke (; ) is a Normans in Ireland, Norman-Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (''circa'' 1160–1206) had the surname'' de B ...
,
Bonesteel,
Marion and
Reliance; in 1997, it acquired lines in
Clearfield,
Gregory,
Lesterville, and
Witten
Witten () is a city with almost 100,000 inhabitants in the Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis (district) in North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany.
Geography
Witten is situated in the Ruhr valley, in the southern Ruhr area.
Bordering municipalities
* Bochum ...
. The sale included 8,500 access lines. The lines acquired were then added to Golden West's subsidiary Vivian Telephone Company.
In 1999, US West announced plans to sell 530,000 access lines in largely rural areas to the independent company
Citizens Communications for $1.65 billion. The sale would not have included
US West Dex directories in those territories. The transaction remained incomplete before 2000.
Acquisition by Qwest
In 2000,
Qwest Communications International acquired US West in a
hostile takeover
In business, a takeover is the purchase of one company (law), company (the ''target'') by another (the ''acquirer'' or ''bidder''). In the UK, the term refers to the acquisition of a public company whose shares are publicly listed, in contrast t ...
. At the time,
Global Crossing
Global Crossing Limited was a telecommunications company that provided computer networking services and operated a tier 1 carrier. It maintained a large backbone network and offered peering, virtual private networks, leased lines, audio and vid ...
, was trying to acquire US West and Frontier Communications, US West initially resisted Qwest's takeover. Qwest was a much smaller company in terms of employees and market capitalization but because Qwest's stock was trading at very high prices during the
dot-com bubble
The dot-com bubble (or dot-com boom) was a stock market bubble that ballooned during the late-1990s and peaked on Friday, March 10, 2000. This period of market growth coincided with the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web and the Interne ...
, it was able to purchase the larger firm, and the Bell Operating Company was renamed Qwest Corporation.
In 2001, Qwest, which acquired US West in 2000, terminated the sale of rural telephone lines agreed upon in 1999 because Citizens refused to complete the transaction.
On December 14, 2009, Qwest Corporation absorbed the operations of its long-time subsidiary
Malheur Bell.
Qwest Official Website - Malheur Bell Qwest Merger
Retrieved 2012-05-10.
Acquisition by CenturyLink
On April 1, 2011, CenturyLink completed its acquisition of Qwest
Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dako ...
. At that point, Qwest Corporation became a subsidiary of CenturyLink and began doing business as CenturyLink QC effective August 8, 2011. The merger represents a reunion of exchanges acquired by Pacific Telecom in the 1990s that had been separated from US West Communications.
Qwest Corporation is one of two of the original Bell Operating Companies to be owned by a company not founded in 1983 as a Baby Bell
A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice against the Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 19 ...
. The other is Frontier West Virginia.
See also
* Northwestern Bell
* Pacific Northwest Bell
References
External links
CenturyLink home page
Qwest home page
Malheur Bell history
{{Authority control
Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Lumen Technologies
Bell System
Communications in Arizona
Communications in Colorado
Communications in Idaho
Communications in Iowa
Communications in Minnesota
Communications in Montana
Communications in Nebraska
Communications in New Mexico
Communications in North Dakota
Communications in Oregon
Communications in South Dakota
Communications in Utah
Communications in Washington
Communications in Wyoming
Companies based in Colorado
1911 establishments in Colorado
Telecommunications companies established in 1911
American companies established in 1911