dslreports logo
Qwest Finally Killing Off Old 'Choice TV'
Early IPTV delivery service gets the axe...

Before there was AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOSTV, and long before Qwest CEO Ed Mueller poo-pooed the idea of a telco offering TV services -- there was Qwest Choice TV. Choice TV was a VDSL-based IPTV delivery system that was deployed first back in 1999 on a trial basis in Arizona, and later expanded into Colorado. But Qwest ultimately found investing in TV delivery to be too steep a slope, and after years of service Choice TV is facing cancellation according to Arizona media outlets.

quote:
Click for full size
Qwest Communications International has started phasing out its Choice TV service for 42,000 video customers in the Valley and is attempting to persuade those customers to subscribe to a satellite TV/broadband package instead. . . Qwest is offering special pricing for Choice TV customers who decide to switch to DirecTV, said Steve Sklar, Qwest’s director of product management.
Qwest's current strategy is to spend $300 million to deliver 20Mbps ADSL2+ to about 1.5 million customers over the next two years. By sticking with ADSL2+, Qwest risks the wrath of being considered irrelevant as the next-gen broadband wars erupt (their "next gen" service offers 896kbps upstream), but they're spending considerably less on upgrades that AT&T ($6 billion) or Verizon ($24 billion). Part of that is Qwest's openness to being acquired.

Unlike AT&T and Verizon, Qwest is also not investing in a next-gen TV strategy -- instead letting customers find their own TV entertainment or bundle satellite TV service. If the popularity of online video ultimately surpasses cable TV, a decision that's generally seen as being cheap now, could be seen as a wise bet later.
view:
topics flat nest 

dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium Member
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ

dvd536

Premium Member

Well there goes the loophole

one could use to get qwest to turn down the interleave on their DSL.
azjerry
join:2002-12-04
Phoenix, AZ

azjerry

Member

Re: Well there goes the loophole

I got the same basic story from a tech last week. He was out fixing my dead phone/Choice Online (NW Phoenix).

They're putting fiber to node in the valley. There's fiber into my neighborhood. Once they install new remote units Choice Online (and qwest.net email addresses) will go away. He didn't know the timing. You're required to have Hotmail/MSN Live address as primary for the account. A q.com address can be an alternate. He said he's telling everyone to get a new account now and start telling everyone of your new address now.
MeKuN
join:2004-07-21
Eugene, OR

1 recommendation

MeKuN

Member

Re: Well there goes the loophole

Why would anyone use an isp email as their permanent email?
I tell people all the time to get a free internet based email so your not tied to your isp by some dumb email address.

soso
@PHNX.QWEST.NET

soso

Anon

VDSL

Ed's daughter gets $200,000 of free company jet rides to visit daddy so she can finish high school without moving. Poor thing.
Past management got the same perks.
Airtouch was sold. Qwest PCS was sold. A fiber ring here of there.
Philip Anschutz got another 27 million last year (2007). Plus more on stock dividends from the few shares he has left. After plundering the company for billions. He should be prosecuted along with Nacchio if not more so. How many where paid to look the other way.
The VDSL service was cutting edge even before ATT. Of course Verizon with its money and fiber to the home. Still for Qwest it was.
Lets just resell direct TV, Verizon cell phones, maybe Cox phone service. Why not. So long as upper management gets a bonus who cares.
MaBell/ US West/ Qwest has been innovative. They had dsl before others. They had a part of airtouch sold to what became Verizon. Same with Qwest PCS. They had VDSl. They had and have innovation and innovative employees.
Most say poor Qwest they have low density and have to serve rural areas. I say and still do this company has been systematically plundered for years. The final straw was allowing Phil with his fly by night Qwest to buy US West. A couple years later if this had not happened US West could have picked up Qwest or MCI or others for pennies on the dollar. The merger should not have been allowed to happen.
Not 20/20 hindsight on my part. I did not like it at the time. Just seemed like a dot.com boom thing. Long distance was the rage leading to overinflated Qwest stock. Oh wait Nacchio did that all by his lonesome. The poor owner of Qwest Phil had no idea how the stock was inflated and shady deals.
Today Ed flies his daughter on the company jet at company expense. Poor daughter. Her husband better be filthy rich to keep up with her growing expectations.
Ma bell was a monopoly forever. The basic infrastructure bought and paid for by the users, the employees and the government. All of a sudden with the breakup of ATT it has become a money supply for some to leach off of. Forget the employees, forget the consumer just big checks for those upper people. Still say even though not a CEO Phil is more in there than known. There are still Qwest customers in rural areas that have no other choice. Oh well forget them. Phil needs more money, Ed's daughter needs another free jet ride.
I do not think the problem is the rural areas Qwest serves. It does not help. It is not in ovation getting in on airtouch, Qwest PCS, dsl and even VDSL prove that. None of those are inherently bad. I think it was plunder. Plunder allowed ending with Phil for now.
The surprise and how it happens will be the end. If Qwest is bought in whole. Sold in pieces and to who. Plus who gets the profits. of course the customers and employees will lose. But that has been for told for years.
RichNice
join:2003-01-09
Bowie, MD

RichNice

Member

Re: VDSL

You pretty much summed it all up right there. I used to work for (Legacy Qwest) from 99-04. And there were a lot of good people working there. We all just got caught in in upper managment's shady @ss'd dealings.

uswc
@iauq.com

uswc to soso

Anon

to soso
Actually, if US West was not purchased by Qwest, then US West would be bankrupt along with Global Crossing and Frontier. I think it's funny that the US West employees are so up set at what Qwest was. Forgetting that SOL was the one that sold off Airtouch, MediaOne, ownership in BellCore, etc. Meanwhile, the backbone (occupational employees) have been addicted to entitlement and "whats in it for me" attitude that created the Life Bitter Here and US Worst slogan. If it was not for Phil A and Joe N. this company would have been parsed out to the lowest bidder in bankruptcy court. And, there would be no US West! No 100+ year legacy, nothing... Parsed out and sold to whom ever would buy.
dynodb
Premium Member
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

dynodb

Premium Member

Re: VDSL

said by uswc :

Actually, if US West was not purchased by Qwest, then US West would be bankrupt along with Global Crossing and Frontier...If it was not for Phil A and Joe N. this company would have been parsed out to the lowest bidder in bankruptcy court. And, there would be no US West! No 100+ year legacy, nothing... Parsed out and sold to whom ever would buy.
Is that sarcasm or are you simply stupid? Before the merger, Qwest had massive debt, fraudulent accounting and had never made a profit. Ever. To this day, pre-merger Qwest hasn't made a dime. Qwest and the corrupt Nacchio didn't save US West from bankruptcy, but it did nearly drive it there thanks to the extra $20 billion in debt and bringing no profitable assets to the table.

The only reason the profitable Dex directory service was sold along with the wireless division was to pay off the debt of pre-merger Qwest. A merger that was only possible thanks to a corrupt CEO and artificially inflated stock price thanks to his illegal, dishonest policies that enriched him personally and left shareholders holding the bag. Had it not been for the merger, US West would've been far stronger and Qwest would've been another forgotten dot.com casualty.
viperlmw
Premium Member
join:2005-01-25

viperlmw

Premium Member

Re: VDSL

Yea, he had it backwards. The whole reason Nacchio wanted USWest was because it was and still is a cash cow, and would keep him affloat until classic Qwest could start making money. At least that was his publicly stated plan.
RichNice
join:2003-01-09
Bowie, MD

RichNice

Member

Re: VDSL

You're right....even us "classic" Qwest employee's knew the deal:

Classic US West bought in 80 percent of the revenue and 90% of the profit, while Classic Qwest brought in 20 percent of the revenue and 10% of the profit.

uswc
@iauq.com

uswc to dynodb

Anon

to dynodb
I should phrase the same question to you... US West would have been bought under the Global Crossing, Frontier, & US West merger. That merger was well under way when Qwest entered the game by buying up all the stock of USW on the open market. I personally would not even call it a "merger of equals" as it was placed publicly. At any rate Global Crossing on January, 2002 went into the 7th largest corporate bankruptcy in US history (at the time atleast). Frontier bought up by Citizens Communications and Global Crossing is now 360networks. Who knows what would have happened to USW. Either way USW would have been bought it was just a question of who. If it would have been Gary Winnick then, you would be complaining about him instead of Nacchio. And, can you actually defend Sol T. in his running of the company??? I don't think so, he was just as much on anyone's list (especially the unions) as Nacchio was after purchasing USW. It did not help Joe one bit, when he called the USW side a bunch of clowns, but sometimes the truth hurts...
dynodb
Premium Member
join:2004-04-21
Minneapolis, MN

1 edit

dynodb

Premium Member

Re: VDSL

Stupid it is then.

You're arguing that USW benefitted from being bought out by the corrupt paper tiger known as Qwest because they weren't quite as corrupt as Global Crossing??? Ridiculous.

USW would've been far, far better off had no merger taken place at all, or if it merged with a company that had actually made a dime of real profit in it's existance. One who's stock price didn't rely on corporate fraud. There's no disputing that the merger kept pre-merger Qwest alive and badly damaged pre-merger US West.

Had investors known that Qwest was little short of a giant Ponzi scheme designed to bilk investors and enrich Joe, they would've gone bankrupt far before they had a chance to buy Qwest.

It wasn't a merger of equals. It was a merger of a bank robber using his proceeds to buy another bank such that he might more easily rob that one too.

USWC
@iauq.com

USWC

Anon

Re: VDSL

Wow…They must not teach manners up in fly over country. I guess it’s pretty easy to call someone stupid on the internet… Oh wait; you must be one of those USW employees that lost the farm on the Qwest merger… I suppose you should have sold when the stock was high (now who is stupid!). Funny how USW was “carrying” classic Qwest, only to be carried by the original Qwest now that local access lines are going away. I suppose I should spell out my thoughts, since you cannot seem to understand the general gist of the post. The original post balked at the amount of entitlement given to current and former CEOs of Qwest. And, was generally down on the state of the company, with how it squandered its legacy. (Which by the way, is not un-usual in corporate America)

My point; USW would’ve been bought period... It was just a question of whom; Global Crossing or Qwest. Qwest bought the company, and yes USW did carry Qwest for a couple of years. But, had Qwest not purchased USW, USW would’ve been bought by Global Crossing (hopefully you are aware of what happened to them). Now, let’s say hypothetically that USW would’ve remained independent. Since 2000 USW has been losing around 1 million access lines per year (Life Bitter Here, US Worst). At the time of the merger there were 16 million +/- access lines. Now USW has a business model that is no longer sustainable (and was not sustainable at the time of the merger). USW did not have a nationwide wireless network and certainly did not have the funds to build out the existing infrastructure. So either way, you would have lost a fortune on USW, it was just a question of when. Yes the company was extremely innovative, but could not execute a plan. Just look at how poorly Choice TV was implemented. How about when the company decentralized complex operations, only to re-centralize them again? My point is this, what has happened, happened. If you lost a ton on what happened, then you should have had the foresight to look beyond what the company was saying and should have diversified your 401K (oh wait USW would not let you do that). If you’re still upset, then you have a fragile and meaning less existence…And need to learn to move on.

But, I suppose it’s just easier to call someone stupid and remain bitter!

MyChoiceTV
@qwest.net

MyChoiceTV

Anon

Re: VDSL

I will miss my choice tv it worked great! It was quite price competitive and it was MPEG3 before MPEG1 was cool.
-I am looking forward to a DVR though.|:)
DSLinCO
join:2008-10-13

DSLinCO

Member

ChoiceTV

I truly enjoyed this service as well. Sure it was missing a couple of features the cable/dish guys have, but hey its cheap and a darn good picture.
Chongo
join:2007-12-11
Phoenix, AZ

1 edit

Chongo

Member

Motorola no longer making or supporting equipment used.

I had Choice TV when I lived in Gilbert. The EV Tribune article says one reason Qwest is phasing choice TV out is because Motorola is no longer making or supporting the equipment use to provide the service. Sad, they just started providing HD channels.