Ask and ye shall receive. Windstream has confirmed to Broadband Reports that the company has raised the upstream speed of their DSL tiers. Windstream says they're responding to a request in our forums by users who found 386 kbps to be a little dated for 2009. Both the company's 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps tiers have seen the upstream side of the equation nudged from 384 kbps to 768 kbps -- at no additional price. The upgrades apparently started in early November and will be ongoing through December -- so if you haven't seen them yet, Broadband Reports readers can apparently nudge Windstream to get the upgrade now.

Windstream Communications has announced that the company will be buying Greenville, South Carolina CLEC NuVox Communications (see our user reviews) for a cool $643 million. Like most CLECs, NuVox has found its niche primarily as a small business operator, offering service to approximately 90,000 business customers. According to a Windstream statement, NuVox has about 1,700 employees, and services 48 locations in 16 contiguous Southeastern and Midwestern states. Though Windstream recently announced layoffs, they're apparently eager for expansion all the same -- and are also rumored to be at least somewhat interested in whether they could pick up bankrupt operator Fairpoint's network on the cheap.

One person's collapsing telecom empire is another person's expansion opportunity. According to the New York Post, some "big name players" are watching Fairpoint Communication's flirtations with bankruptcy with great interest. Citing a "source with direct knowledge of the process," the Post says Windstream Communications may be buying up debt with an eye on acquiring the company's assets. Fairpoint CEO David Hauser last week talked rather casually about the very real possibility for a Fairpoint bankruptcy, after the company continues to struggle with the debt acquired from Verizon. Windstream meanwhile announced last week they'd be laying off 3% of their workforce to offset continued landline losses.

According to an announcement by DSL provider Windstream Communications (see our user reviews here), the company will be laying off roughly 5% of their workforce (350 out of 7,100 jobs) in order to "offset revenue pressure in the residential voice business." In other words Windstream, like larger telco Verizon, is making cuts to help counter the continuing death of the copper landline. The company, originally spun off from Alltel Communications (now part of Verizon), passed the one million broadband subscriber mark last Spring.

Following the moves of companies such as Qwest and Comcast, Windstream this week has launched a price for life promotion that locks down your monthly rate if you bundle at least two services (bundles start at $49.99). Windstream tells us the deal doesn't require a long-term contract. As we discussed when Qwest launched such a promotion, such deals often aren't worth it to consumers. What seems like a good deal today quite often isn't a good deal down the road, and in many instances customers can get better rates by renegotiating their rates with their carrier. Being civil, but threatening to take your business elsewhere can usually net you more savings than these price for life promotions.

Like most ISPs, Windstream Communications is now on Twitter, and today dropped the news that they'll be unveiling a new 24Mbps down, 1.5Mbps fiber service in Lexington, Kentucky. The company primarily serves ADSL2+, but offers FTTH in select developments (the company confirmed to us this is FTTH).

According to the Associated Press, Windstream Communications has sued Verizon Wireless for money owed them under an interconnection agreement with Alltel. Alltel, now owned by Verizon Wireless, had an agreement in place since 2006 with Windstream that allowed telecommunication traffic to travel over their independent networks, the carriers invoicing one another after the fact. Windstream has been claiming for some time that they were over billed by Alltel, and is seeking $7 million in damages. "Windstream was charged for calls on the Alltel network that were made by non-Windstream customers," Windstream tells the Arkansas News Bureau.

According to a press release from Windstream Communications, the phone company has just passed one million broadband customers. According to the company, they've already added 21,000 new broadband customers during the first quarter of this year, surpassing the 18,000 they added last quarter. Windstream was created back in 2006 when it was spun off by Alltel (now part of Verizon Wireless) and merged with Valor Communications. Windstream now offers broadband service to about 88% of its 3 million access lines.

Windstream today announced that the carrier will be eliminating 170 jobs -- or 2.3% of the DSL provider's workforce because of declining revenue at the carrier's landline business. Windstream spokesman David Avery says the cuts include involuntary layoffs, but they hope some employees will volunteer for buyouts.

Back in July, we noted that AT&T, Verizon and Qwest joined forces to create a new alliance that makes it easier for people who are moving to transfer their landline and broadband services between companies. Collectively they also launched a website named Movearoo -- flush with moving tips and help. The tips however are largely decoration -- the alliance's primary function is to keep business within the baby bell family, and away from cable and indie competitors. Windstream this week stated that they've joined the coalition -- the first smaller, rural telco to do so.

Reuters suggests that rural America will be the next hotspot for telecom mergers. Players like Windstream Communications, Embarq, Centurytel, Consolidated Communications Holdings and Iowa Telecommunications Services could all play parts. One deal mentioned is the possibility of Windstream Communications acquiring Frontier. "The most likely takeout candidate for Windstream would be Frontier because of Frontier's size," said Stanford Group analyst Michael Nelson, who sees a $4 billion deal in about six months. Given that Frontier has been hinting at 5GB usage caps starting this fall and Windstream has no such plans, that might be good news for Frontier customers.

Little Rock based Windstream Communications just updated their website to show they are now offering a new DSL tier of 12Mbps down and 1Mbps up. They're also now offering all of their tiers (including the new 12Mbps tier) for $19.99 for the first six months.

Last week we noted that Windstream Communications was the latest ISP to implement DNS redirection, and that some customers were having a difficult time opting out of the service. According to postings to our forums, Windstream is now offering "clean", advertisement-free DNS servers for those interested. The company apparently has six DNS servers, and while the first four implement redirection, these last two do not:

User lacibaci writes in: "It seems like Windstream is yet another ISP who values money more than internet standards. As of 1/8/2008 (give or take a day or two) typing a non-existent domain will yield a "Cannot find server" from entry-not-found.com (apparently powered by Yahoo) All this without informing customers.

Arkansas-based DSL provider Windstream Communications says they're going to start bundling TiVO service with DSL connections starting next year. While Windstream is exploring getting into the IPTV business, for the moment their triple play consists of bundled Dish Network satellite service.

Arkansas-based DSL provider Windstream Communications appears to be offshoring a chunk of their domestic tech support operations and consolidating the rest, according to employee chatter in our forums. Windstream, originally part of Alltel Wireless, was spun off last year as a separate company and lauded itself for having all U.S. support.

One anonymous Windstream employee says the company is eliminating at least two support desk locations while expanding a third. He also notes that Windstream is helping terminated employees find new work, either inside the organization or elsewhere: story continues..