81-573: Central Telephone Company is a telephone operating company owned by Lumen Technologies that provides local telephone service in Florida , Nevada , and North Carolina . Its largest market is Las Vegas The company was established in 1971 as a subsidiary of Centel . In 1992, Centel was acquired by Sprint , but the Central Telephone Company retained its corporate name. In 2006, Sprint spun off its local telephone business as Embarq , which
162-521: A Portland -based Platform as a Service provider. In November CenturyLink acquired Tier 3 a Seattle -based infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform, and provider of advanced cloud management. However, Tier 3 became part of CenturyLink Cloud rather than Savvis. At the time, Tier 3 operated nine data centers in the Seattle region while Savvis operated 55. CenturyLink planned to build out two to four new datacenters in 2014. The CTO of Tier3, Jared Wray, took
243-484: A fleet telematics system company in Dublin, Ireland , for $ 2.4 billion, to build products that it offers to enterprises for logistics and mobile workforces. On September 12, 2016, Verizon announced its acquisition of Sensity, a startup for LED sensors , in an effort to bolster its IoT portfolio. A few months later, Verizon acquired mapping startup SocialRadar, whose technology would be integrated with MapQuest . Verizon
324-486: A portmanteau of veritas (Latin for "truth") and horizon . In 2015, Verizon expanded into content ownership by acquiring AOL , and two years later, it acquired Yahoo! Inc. AOL and Yahoo were amalgamated into a new division named Oath Inc., which was rebranded as Verizon Media in January 2019, and was spun off and rebranded to Yahoo! Inc. after its sale to Apollo Global Management . As of 2016 , Verizon
405-822: A "nationwide outage" caused 9-1-1 service to be disrupted across the country. In some areas the outage lasted nearly twelve hours and was the third shutdown of the year following outages in April and November 2018. ATM and point of sale credit card machines were also widely affected. The outage resulted in 886 calls to 911 failing to deliver. The FCC investigated but did not place any fine or recommendation on Lumen. In 2020, 911 outages in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Colorado, Arizona, Utah and North Carolina led to additional FCC investigations. Lumen agreed to pay $ 3.8 million in civil damages for failing to deliver 911 calls. In 2022, additional outages, in South Dakota, resulted in
486-577: A $ 50 billion lawsuit was filed by two lawyers on behalf of all Verizon subscribers for privacy violations and to prevent the company from releasing additional records without consent or warrant. Protesters staged the National Day of Out(R)age due in part to the controversy. In 2007, Verizon stated that it fulfilled only "lawful demands" for information, but also acknowledged surrendering customer information to government agencies without court orders or warrants 720 times between 2005 and 2007. Verizon won
567-451: A 200 employee predictive analytics company. On March 30, 2016, CenturyLink announced the acquisition of netAura, a security services company that focuses on cybersecurity, security information and event management (SIEM), and vulnerability management that typically works with government customers. On October 31, 2016, CenturyLink announced its intent to acquire Level 3 Communications in a deal valued at around $ 25 billion. After securing
648-476: A Frost & Sullivan Award for their web security offering in 2021. In October 2023 Lumen announced sale of select CDN customer contracts to Akamai, winding down the CDN business. CenturyLink Small Business provides products and services around Internet, Phone, TV, and Cloud Applications. Like CenturyLink Residential, CenturyLink Small Business offers DirecTV, but the residential and business packages are designed for
729-527: A criminal finding from the FCC: An investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau found that Lumen apparently willfully and repeatedly violated FCC rules by failing to notify public safety call centers in a timely manner of both 911 outages and by deploying a system that was insufficient to transmit all 911 calls reliably to public safety call centers in the second outage, creating a significant threat to
810-487: A deal in April 2017 whereby Verizon would purchase 12.4 million miles of optical fiber per year from Corning from 2018 through 2020. Months later, Verizon purchased WideOpenWest 's fiber-optic assets in the Chicago market for $ 225 million. Also in 2017, Verizon was sued by New York City for violating its cable franchise agreement, which required the provider to pass a fiberoptic network to all households in
891-782: A deal was signed with Colt Technology Services in which Lumen EMEA, its subsidiary serving the Europe, Middle East, and Africa enterprise markets, would be sold to Colt for $ 1.8 billion. The deal allows Lumen to continue serving multinational enterprise customers via Colt's infrastructure. Lumen's products and services focus on three segments: enterprise business, small business, and residential. Lumen Enterprise Business provides products and services around network, cloud, security, voice, and managed services to enterprise customers. Lumen's network services include SD-WAN, MPLS/IPVPN, hybrid WAN, Ethernet, Internet access, wavelength services, dark fiber , and private lines. Lumen Cloud provides big data as
SECTION 10
#1733093274082972-429: A family-operated business until it became incorporated in 1968. It went public in 1971. By 1967, Oak Ridge Telephone Company served three states with 10,000 access lines. That year, the company was incorporated as Central Telephone and Electronics. Clarke M. Williams served as president and chairman of the board. In 1971, the company was renamed Century Telephone Enterprises, Inc. In 1972, Century Telephone acquired
1053-657: A global provider of cloud infrastructure and hosted IT services for $ 2 billion, which represented all outstanding shares of Savvis common stock at $ 40 per share. This acquisition allowed CenturyLink to provide expanded managed hosting and cloud services . In October 2012, Savvis acquired the ITO Business Division of Ciber , which added managed services to their business. By December, CenturyLink launched Savvisdirect an expansion of CenturyLink's portfolio of Savvis cloud services for small businesses, IT administrators, and developers. In June 2013, Savis acquired AppFog,
1134-473: A lawsuit against Vonage for patent infringement in March 2007. The three patents named were filed by Bell Atlantic in 1997, and relate to the conversion of IP addresses into phone numbers, a key technology of Vonage's business. The company was awarded US$ 58 million in damages and future royalties. Vonage later lost an appeal and was ordered to pay Verizon $ 120 million. In May 2007, Verizon acquired CyberTrust ,
1215-595: A new division to serve the company's business and government customers. The FCC approved the deal on October 31, 2005, valuing it at $ 8.5 billion. Verizon's 2006 revenues rose by as much as 20% following the purchase. USA Today reported in May 2006 that Verizon, as well as AT&T and BellSouth , had given the National Security Agency landline phone records following the September 11 attacks . That same month,
1296-427: A notice advertising its security and parental control software, before they could connect to the internet again. The provider claimed that this was required by a recently enacted state law, which requires all ISPs to inform users that they provide "the ability to block material harmful to minors". Bill sponsor and Utah State Senate member Todd Weiler stated that the law did not require that service be disrupted until
1377-864: A part of the index since the Great Depression . Verizon launched its Fios Internet service, which transmits data over fiber optic cables, in Keller, Texas , in 2004. The company launched Fios TV in September 2005, also in Keller. Twenty percent of qualified homes had signed up by the end of 2004. By January 2006, Fios offered over 350 channels in seven states, including 20 high-definition television channels and video on demand . Mail servers at Verizon.net were configured in December 2004 to not accept connections from Europe by default in an attempt to reduce spam email that
1458-492: A possible buyout. Charter reportedly rejected the deal around the end of May 2017, citing that the offer was too low for them to accept, and its largest shareholder Liberty Media stated that they were not ready to sell. Verizon added to its fiber-optic network and 5G capabilities in February 2017 when it closed its $ 1.8 billion acquisition of XO Communications ' fiber-optic network business. Verizon and Corning Inc. announced
1539-489: A privately held provider of global information security services. In September 2007, Verizon Wireless reversed a controversial decision to deny NARAL Pro-Choice America a short code through which the organization could text consumers who had signed up for messaging from the group. The company had initially refused the group access to a code by reserving the right to block "controversial or unsavory" messages. Verizon opened its networks to third party apps and devices for
1620-454: A profit of $ 32.5 billion. The same report also criticized Verizon for increasing executive pay by 167% in 2010 for its top five executives while laying off 21,308 workers between 2008 and 2010. However, in its Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 24, 2012, Verizon reported having paid more than $ 11.1 billion in taxes (including income, employment and property taxes) from 2009 to 2011. In addition,
1701-720: A report detailing the problems that led to the failure in January 2013. Verizon reported that it had already addressed or was addressing a number of the issues related to the FCC report, including the causes of generator failures, conducting audits of backup systems, and making its monitoring systems less centralized, although the FCC indicated that Verizon still needed to make additional improvements. The FCC ruled that Verizon must stop charging users an added fee for using 4G smartphones and tablets as Wi-Fi hotspots (known as " tethering "). Verizon had been charging its customers, even those with "unlimited" plans, $ 20 per month for tethering. As part of
SECTION 20
#17330932740821782-464: A result, CenturyLink shareholders prior to the merger wound up with 50.5% share of ownership in the combined company, while former Qwest shareholders gained the remaining 49.5%. The valuation of CenturyLink's purchase was $ 12 billion. The merger was completed on April 1, 2011. The addition of Qwest allowed CenturyLink to become the third largest telecommunications company in the United States, and
1863-549: A service, Internet of Things (IoT), multi-cloud management, private cloud, public cloud, bare metal, SaaS applications, and cloud connect. Lumen Security monitors more than a billion security events daily. Services include: cloud, infrastructure, DDoS, web application, email, and web security. The company also provides analytics and threat management, risk and compliance support, and threat research labs. CenturyLink offers voice products ranging from traditional landlines to unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) services and
1944-508: A settlement with AT&T Corporation to breakup the Bell System. Bell Atlantic Corporation was created as one of the original " Baby Bell " Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) in 1984. Bell Atlantic's original roster of operating companies included: In 1996, CEO and Chairman Raymond W. Smith orchestrated Bell Atlantic's merger with NYNEX . When it merged, it moved its corporate headquarters from Philadelphia to New York City. NYNEX
2025-494: A small and fast growing number of locations. The service was first introduced to Omaha , Nebraska , and next rolled out to Las Vegas , Nevada , with plans for expansion to several other markets. Unlike the company's existing high speed Internet deployments, which utilize fiber-to the node/neighborhood to increase the speed of ADSL2+ speeds up to 20/2 Mbit/s, Vectored VDSL2+ speeds up to 140/10 Mbit/s, in these markets CenturyLink now installs their fiber optic cable all
2106-509: A three-year continuous expansion of the 4G service. Verizon acquired Terremark , an information technology services company, for $ 1.4 billion in early 2011. Ivan Seidenberg retired as Verizon's CEO on August 1, 2011, and was succeeded by Lowell McAdam . In December 2011, the non-partisan organization Public Campaign criticized Verizon for its tax avoidance procedures after it spent $ 52.34 million on lobbying while collecting $ 951 million in tax rebates between 2008 and 2010 and making
2187-587: Is one of three remaining companies with roots in the former Baby Bells. The other two, like Verizon, exist as a result of mergers among fellow former Baby Bell members. SBC Communications bought the Bells' former parent AT&T Corporation and took on the AT&;T name, and CenturyLink acquired Qwest (formerly US West ) in 2011 and later became Lumen Technologies in 2020. In 1983, the US Department of Justice came to
2268-595: Is the largest wireless carrier in the United States , with 114.2 million subscribers as of September 30, 2024. The company was formed in 1984 as Bell Atlantic as a result of the breakup of the Bell System into seven companies, each a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC), commonly referred to as "Baby Bells." The company was originally headquartered in Philadelphia and operated in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. In 1997, Bell Atlantic expanded into New York and
2349-560: Is the second largest U.S. communications provider to global enterprise customers, second to Comcast . CenturyLink has customers in more than 60 countries and has been named one of America's best customer service companies (alongside Frontier and Spectrum ). The Federal Communications Commission ordered CenturyLink to pay a record $ 16 million for failing to alert authorities of a preventable programming error that left nearly 11 million people in seven states without access to emergency services for six hours in 2014. On December 27, 2018,
2430-753: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and approved by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that required Verizon to provide the National Security Agency (NSA) with telephone metadata for all calls originating in the U.S. Verizon Wireless was not part of the NSA data collection for wireless accounts due to foreign ownership issues. Verizon purchased Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon in September 2013 for $ 130 billion. The deal closed on February 21, 2014, and became
2511-614: The New England states by merging with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX . While Bell Atlantic was the surviving company, the merged company moved its headquarters from Philadelphia to NYNEX's old headquarters in New York City. In 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE , which operated telecommunications companies across most of the rest of the country not already in Bell Atlantic's footprint. Bell Atlantic, the surviving entity, changed its name to Verizon,
Central Telephone - Misplaced Pages Continue
2592-587: The S&;P 600 index since being removed from the S&P 500 in March 2023. Its communications services have included local and long-distance voice, broadband, Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) , private line (including special access), Ethernet, hosting (including cloud hosting and managed hosting), data integration, video, network, public access, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), information technology, and other ancillary services. Lumen has gone through many acquisitions, divestments, and structural changes. In
2673-594: The "High Cost Support Loop" program. From 2004 to 2007 CenturyTel repurchased approximately $ 2 billion in shares. On October 27, 2008, Embarq announced that it would be acquired by CenturyTel, Inc. in an all-stock transaction valued at about $ 6 billion. CenturyTel's CEO Glen Post would remain CEO of the merged company following the acquisition, and remained CEO until 2018. Embarq was the former landline business of Sprint and served cities in 18 states, including Nevada, Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio. The deal made CenturyTel
2754-590: The 2012 settlement, Verizon made a voluntary payment of $ 1.25 million to the U.S. Treasury . In August 2012, the Department of Justice approved Verizon's purchase of Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum from a consortium of cable companies, including Comcast , Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks , for $ 3.9 billion. Verizon began expanding its LTE network utilizing these extra airwaves in October 2013. The Guardian reported it had obtained an order by
2835-532: The 20th century, this primarily consisted of buying and selling local telecom providers. Larger mergers at the beginning of the 21st century added internet service providing to Lumen's core business. As Cloud computing became more important, Lumen acquired business to serve enterprise cloud customers. The earliest predecessor of Lumen was the Oak Ridge Telephone Company in Oak Ridge, Louisiana , which
2916-524: The CenturyLink Cloud CTO position after the acquisition. CenturyLink then closed savvisdirect by 2014, consolidating their cloud service offerings internally. On December 8, 2014, CenturyLink announced the acquisition of DataGardens, Inc., a Disaster Recovery as-a-Service (DRaaS) provider based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. On December 11, 2014, CenturyLink announced the acquisition of Cognilytics,
2997-795: The FCC's net neutrality rules and the FCC's determination that broadband access is a public utility rather than a luxury. AT&T and the telecom industry said they would seek to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court . The Wall Street Journal reported that Verizon received more than 1,000 requests for information about its subscribers on national security grounds via National Security Letters . In total, Verizon received 321,545 requests from federal, state and local law enforcement for U.S. customer information. In May 2015, Verizon agreed to pay $ 90 million "to settle federal and state investigations into allegations mobile customers were improperly billed for premium text messages." Verizon Wireless launched
3078-532: The Internet speed of the time to 144 kb per second. In August 2002, Verizon began offering local, long-distance and mobile calling, as well as Internet service, in a bundle . It was initially only available to customers in New York and Massachusetts. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added Verizon Communications to its stock market index in April 2004. Verizon replaced telecom competitor AT&T, which had been
3159-669: The La Crosse Telephone Corporation, of Wisconsin. This began a multi-decade spree of acquisitions which grew the size of the company. The company went public in 1978 on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1985, Century Telephone sold several subsidiaries to Colonial Telephone for $ 4.66 million. In 1987, the stock price rapidly increased from its low that year, before dropping in the 1987 stock market crash . Earnings grew each year from their 1983 low, and by 1987 they reached nearly US$ 20 million. From 1991 to 1995
3240-523: The Minnesota Attorney General's office. CenturyLink disagreed with the charges, but settled to avoid litigation costs. Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( / v ə ˈ r aɪ z ən / və- RY -zən ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City . It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network
3321-476: The United States. In this time it paid down its long term debt to $ 2.7 billion and its net income fell to $ 337 million annually. In 2005, CenturyTel began offering satellite television services. In 2007, "workforce reduction" resulted in 600 employees laid-off and received $ 336 million in Federal and State subsidy. CenturyTel received an additional $ 333 million the previous year. Most of these funds were received through
Central Telephone - Misplaced Pages Continue
3402-420: The acquisition of Edison, New Jersey–based SEAL Consulting, a SAP services provider. CenturyLink ended 2017 with $ 1.3 billion in net income. By the end of 2018, CenturyLink had $ 35 billion in long term debt. It determined it had overestimated the value of its goodwill and wrote down a $ 2.7 billion loss. This resulted in a $ 1.7 billion loss in net income for 2018. On September 10, 2019, CenturyLink announced
3483-409: The acquisition of Streamroot, a provider of technology to improve video and static content delivery within bandwidth constrained areas. On September 14, 2020, CenturyLink, Inc announced that it had changed its name to Lumen Technologies, Inc. Effective with the opening of the trading day on September 18, 2020, the company stock ticker changed from CTL to LUMN. The CenturyLink brand will continue to be
3564-399: The city by June 30, 2014. Verizon disputed the claims, citing landlords not granting permission to install the equipment on their properties, and an understanding with the government that the fiber network would follow the same routes as its copper lines, and did not necessarily mean it would have to pass the lines in front of every property. Verizon Connect was created in 2018, combining
3645-593: The company continued its acquisition strategy which added tens of thousand of phone lines and grew the long term debt from $ 205 million to $ 602 million with $ 115 million in annual net income. By 1995 it was the 16th largest communications company in the United States with over 3000 employees. Two hundred employees were unionized through the Communications Workers of America. In 1997 the company bought Pacific Telecom for $ 1.5 billion. This acquisition added 1.9 million cell lines to Century's network and nearly doubled
3726-417: The company grew to nearly 7000 employees with approximately 1500 of them organized in various unions. At this time the company had about $ 800 million in net income and $ 3.6 billion in debt. In 2003 the company acquired Digital Teleport ($ 39 million) which then formed some of its main assets and expanded the company's fiber network offering. By 2004, CenturyTel was the eighth largest local telephone provider in
3807-533: The company in "Growth", "Nurture", "Harvest" sections. These corresponded to high margin, low-margin, and very-low/negative margin. The goal was to move customers from Nurture to Grow products and to sell off the Harvest products. Landline sales continued to fall but Lumen focused on growing the profitable fiber services. This led to the $ 2.7 billion sale of its Latin American business which was rebranded as Cirion. In 2023,
3888-665: The company reported in the 10-K that most of the drop in employment since 2008 was due to a voluntary retirement offer. Verizon purchased Hughes Telematics, a producer of wireless features for automobiles , for $ 612 million in June 2012 as part of its strategy to expand into new growth areas in its wireless business. The same month, Verizon's E-911 service failed in the aftermath of the June 2012 derecho storm in several northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., with some problems lasting several days. The FCC conducted an investigation and released
3969-683: The company spun off wirelines in Arizona , Idaho , Illinois , Indiana , Michigan , Nevada , North Carolina , Ohio , Oregon , South Carolina , Washington , West Virginia , and Wisconsin into a company that then merged with Frontier Communications in a deal valued at $ 8.6 billion. It sold its interests in telecommunications providers in the Dominican Republic (Verizon Dominicana, previously CODETEL ), Puerto Rico and Venezuela to América Móvil . A decade later, it would continue moves to invest in wireless. In 2015, American Tower Corp. acquired
4050-410: The company's initial $ 6.75 billion offer in February but then received a higher offer from Qwest Communications . Verizon increased its bid to $ 7.6 billion, which MCI accepted on March 29, 2005. The acquisition gave the company access to MCI's million corporate clients and international holdings, expanding Verizon's presence into global markets. As a result, Verizon Business was established as
4131-453: The company's initial public offering (IPO) (the IPO was ultimately cancelled in 2003 because the company no longer needed to raise revenue for Verizon Wireless due to increased profits), and created a backlog of repairs. This strike did not involve all company employees, as most line technicians and user technicians of the company are in a union. Verizon launched 3G service in 2002, which doubled
SECTION 50
#17330932740824212-428: The company's top priority was to restore service to customers as quickly as possible, and that VoiceLink was a means of doing so in the event that larger repairs had to be done to the infrastructure. The spokesperson stated that it was "hard to argue with disciplining someone who intentionally leaves a customer without service". Verizon was reported to be in talks with Charter Communications in January 2017 to discuss
4293-424: The copper lines. VoiceLink has limitations, including incompatibility with services or devices that require the transmission of data over the telephone line, and a dependency on battery backup in case of power failure. The memo warned that technicians who do not follow this procedure would be subject to "disciplinary action up to and including dismissal". A Verizon spokesperson responded to the allegations, stating that
4374-435: The customer-facing brand for traditional copper-based services. Fiber-based products and services use the brand Quantum Fiber . On August 3, 2021, Lumen announced it would sell its incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) operations in 20 states to Apollo Global Management for $ 7.5 billion. Essentially, Lumen was selling off much the core of the old CenturyTel and Embarq. Lumen retained ILEC operations in 16 states, mostly
4455-438: The different settings. CenturyLink Residential provides Internet (either DSL or Gigabit Fiber, depending on the package), voice, and TV, via partnership with DirecTV . The company also offers bundling with Verizon Wireless . CenturyLink residential and small business services are available in the following states: Quantum Fiber is a fiber to the premises service in the United States, providing broadband Internet to
4536-567: The exclusive right to lease, acquire or otherwise operate and manage many of Verizon's wireless towers for an upfront payment of $ 5.1 billion, which also included payment for the sale of approximately 165 towers. Verizon used the funds from this sale to support a $ 10.4 billion purchase of AWS-3 spectrum licenses at an FCC auction. In 2016, Verizon sold its wireline operations in Texas, Florida, and California to Frontier. Verizon began negotiations in 2005 to purchase long-distance carrier MCI , who accepted
4617-487: The expansion of its gigabit fiber service to residential and business customers in six additional states, increasing the company's service coverage to select areas of 17 states. Lumen maintains and operates dark fiber within the United States for the Department of Defense, contracting announcements indicate. This is a continuation of CenturyLink's work. Gigabit Fiber markets On May 2, 2017, CenturyLink, Inc. completed
4698-821: The first time in 2007, a decision that allowed it to participate in the FCC's 2008 700 MHz auction of "open access" spectrum . During that auction, the company bid $ 9.4 billion and won the bulk of national and local licenses for airwaves reaching approximately 469 million people. Verizon utilized the increased spectrum for its 4G service. Verizon acquired Rural Cellular Corp. for $ 2.7 billion in cash and assumed debt in 2008. That summer, Verizon announced it would purchase wireless carrier Alltel for $ 28.1 billion. The acquisition included 13 million customers, which allowed Verizon Wireless to surpass AT&T in number of customers and reach new markets in rural areas. 4chan began receiving reports on February 4, 2010, from Verizon Wireless customers that were having difficulties accessing
4779-497: The largest landline phone provider in the state of Colorado. The new company has 17 million access lines, 5 million broadband customers, and 1.4 million video subscribers across 37 states. The merger also made CenturyLink owner of one of the Former Regional Bell Operating Companies: the successor to US West , which had been purchased by Qwest in 2000. In July 2011, CenturyLink acquired Savvis , Inc.,
4860-653: The life and property of tens of thousands of people. In 2023, outages on Lumen's network, in Nebraska, resulted in no 911 calls being fulfilled for over 10 hours. In 2024, there were multiple 911 service disruptions in South Dakota. The FCC announced additional investigation into these outages. In these outages local officials claim service was not disrupted because the texting system was still operational. In December 2018, CenturyLink faced criticism for requiring residential customers in Utah to, via DNS hijacking , view and acknowledge
4941-440: The necessary regulatory approvals, CenturyLink closed the transaction on November 1, 2017. This acquisition can now be viewed as a takeover from the inside. Level3 shareholders would only approve the deal if CenturyLink retired their CFO and eventually CEO. Eventually all former CenturyLink executives would be replaced by former Level3 managers leaving only HR and legal executives in place. On January 9, 2017, CenturyLink announced
SECTION 60
#17330932740825022-488: The notice is acknowledged; the law only requires that this notice be delivered in a "conspicuous" manner (such as an advertisement within a bill or invoice) and does not require disruption of service. On January 8, 2020, CenturyLink was required to pay $ 8.9 million to customers in Minnesota in a settlement regarding over-billing. In addition to the payment, CenturyLink is required to reform billing practices and submit audits to
5103-542: The operations formerly served by Qwest . The sale closed in October 2022; the sold ILEC operations were rebranded as Brightspeed . Lumen has won multiple government contracts. Throughout 2021, it won a managed network service contract with United States Postal Service and a connectivity contract with US Army Recruiting and the US Navy Judge Advocate General Corps. Lumen continued to have difficulty generating profit in 2022. The executives divided
5184-411: The previously announced sale of its data centers and colocation business to funds advised by BC Partners, in a consortium including Medina Capital Advisors and Longview Asset Management. The deal was worth approximately $ 1.86 billion, with CenturyLink retaining an approximately 10% equity stake in the consortium's newly formed global secure infrastructure company, Cyxtera Technologies. As of 2018, Lumen
5265-409: The site's image boards. Administrators of the site found that only traffic on port 80 to the boards.4chan.org domain was affected, leading them to believe the block was intentional. On February 7, 2010, Verizon Wireless confirmed that 4chan.org was "explicitly blocked" after Verizon's security and external experts detected sweep attacks coming from an IP address associated with the 4chan network. Traffic
5346-418: The size of the company. After the acquisition Century's network served 21 states and 2 million customers. The company sold off some of its telephone assets to smaller competitors for hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2000, the company acquired 490,000 telephone lines from Verizon for $ 1.5 billion. It then sold "substantially all" of its wireless business to Alltel for $ 1.59 billion in 2002. Through 2002
5427-550: The technology news website SugarString in October 2014. The publication attracted controversy after it was reported that its writers were forbidden from publishing articles related to net neutrality or domestic surveillance . Although Verizon denied that this was the case, the site (described as being a pilot project) was shuttered in December. In August 2015, Verizon launched Hum , a service and device offering vehicle diagnostic and monitoring tools for vehicles. On August 1, 2016, Verizon announced its acquisition of Fleetmatics ,
5508-574: The third largest corporate deal ever signed, giving Verizon Communications sole ownership of Verizon Wireless. On January 14, 2014, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the FCC's net neutrality rules after Verizon filed suit against them in January 2010. In June 2016, in a 184-page ruling, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld, by a 2–1 vote,
5589-535: The third-largest landline phone provider in Pennsylvania behind Verizon (through both Verizon Pennsylvania and Verizon North ) and Comcast . On June 2, 2009, a press release announced that the combined CenturyTel/Embarq entity would be called CenturyLink . Denver-based Monigle Associates was retained to formulate the new brand strategy. The acquisition was completed on July 1, 2009. On October 19, 2009, CenturyTel and Embarq brandings were retired, and all business
5670-644: The time. Bell Atlantic changed its name to Verizon Communications in June 2000, when the FCC approved the US$ 64.7 billion merger with telephone company GTE, nearly two years after the deal was proposed in July 1998. The merger was announced on April 4. The name Verizon derives from the combination of the words veritas , Latin for truth, and horizon . The approval came with 25 stipulations to preserve competition between local phone carriers, including investing in new markets and broadband technologies. The new entity
5751-453: The venture. Vodafone retained 45% of the company. The deal was valued at approximately $ 70 billion and created a mobile carrier with 23 million customers. Verizon Wireless merged Bell Atlantic's wireless network, Vodafone's AirTouch and PrimeCo holdings, and the wireless division of GTE. Due to its size, Verizon Wireless was able to offer national coverage at competitive rates, giving it an advantage over regional providers typical of
5832-519: The way to the home or business with speeds up to 1,000 Mbit/s download and 1,000 Mbit/s upload using Calix Optical Network Terminals. On February 2, 2014, CenturyLink announced the availability of Gigabit fiber service to multi-tenant businesses in Salt Lake City and surrounding communities. On August 5, 2014, CenturyLink announced the expansion of its gigabit fiber service to 16 additional markets. On September 15, 2015, CenturyLink announced
5913-545: Was accused by Communications Workers of America of deliberately refusing to maintain its copper telephone service in 2016. The organization released internal memos and other documents stating that Verizon workers in Pennsylvania were being instructed to, in areas with network problems, migrate voice-only customers to VoiceLink, a system that delivers telephone service over the Verizon Wireless network, instead of repairing
5994-550: Was consolidated into the Bell Atlantic name by 1997. Two months before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) gave final approval on the formation of Verizon Communications, Bell Atlantic formed Verizon Wireless in a joint venture with the British telecommunications company Vodafone in April 2000. The companies established Verizon Wireless as its own business operated by Bell Atlantic, which owned 55% of
6075-698: Was headed by co-CEOs Charles Lee, former CEO of GTE , and Bell Atlantic CEO Ivan Seidenberg . Verizon became the largest local telephone company in the United States, operating 63 million telephone lines in 40 states. The company also inherited 25 million mobile phone customers. Additionally, Verizon offered internet services and long-distance calling in New York, before expanding long-distance operations to other states. Approximately 85,000 Verizon workers went on an 18-day labor strike in August 2000 after their union contracts expired. The strike affected quarterly revenues, resulting in Verizon Wireless' postponement of
6156-616: Was officially conducted under the CenturyLink banner, continuing to trade on the NYSE under the CenturyTel stock ticker CTL. The new corporate name, CenturyLink, Inc., did not become official until May 2010. On April 22, 2010, CenturyLink (at this point still legally known as CenturyTel, Inc.) announced it would acquire Qwest in a stock-for-stock transaction. Under the agreement, CenturyLink would swap 0.1664 of its shares for each share of Qwest; as
6237-836: Was originating from the region. Individual domains would only be unblocked upon request. The move was criticized by its customers for disrupting their communications without notice, causing them to initiate a class-action lawsuit. Verizon proposed a settlement in April 2006. Beginning in 2005, Verizon reinforced its focus on its mobile phone, Internet, and TV businesses by selling a number of its U.S.-based wireline-focused businesses and international assets. It sold 700,000 lines in Hawaii in 2005, and spun off lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in January 2007, which were then purchased by FairPoint Communications for $ 2.72 billion. Verizon also shed its telephone directory business in 2006. In May 2009,
6318-471: Was owned by F. E. Hogan Sr. In 1930, Hogan sold the company, with 75 paid subscribers, to William Clarke and Marie Williams, for $ 500. In 1946, Clarke McRae Williams received ownership of the family's telephone company as a wedding gift. Clarke purchased the Marion Telephone Company and eventually made it his base of operation as he grew his company through more acquisitions. The company remained as
6399-576: Was recognized in 2018 by Frost & Sullivan for "growth excellence in VoIP access and SIP trunking". Lumen's managed services include advanced professional services, IT consulting, and strategic partnerships. Lumen has developed the edge capabilities of its global CDN through its partnership with Section.io . They now offer a flexible edge framework on which you can bring applications to boost performance, optimize websites and secure web assets (using external apps such as ThreatX, Perimeter X, etc.). They received
6480-539: Was restored several days later. The chairmen of Verizon and Google agreed that network neutrality should be defined and limited in August 2010. In October 2010, Verizon Wireless paid $ 77.8 million in refunds and FCC penalties for overcharging 15 million customers for data services. The company stated the overcharges were accidental and only amounted to a few dollars per customer. Verizon introduced its 4G LTE network in 38 markets, as well as airports in seven additional cities in December 2010. The company planned on
6561-778: Was then acquired by CenturyTel (now CenturyLink ) in 2009. On August 3, 2021, Lumen announced its sale of its local telephone assets in 20 states to Apollo Global Management , including North Carolina. Lumen will continue to provide ILEC services in Florida and Nevada. Lumen Technologies Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink ) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana , which offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice and managed services through its fiber optic and copper networks, as well as its data centers and cloud computing services. The company has been included in
#81918