No big dig at Qwest

In what seems likely to be his last earnings call as Qwest Communications’ chairman and CEO, Richard Notebaert didn’t pull any punches.

He doesn’t see Qwest getting into the kind of multi-billion dollar video access networks in which his colleagues at AT&T and Verizon are currently engaged and he’s a bit surprised that someone would think Qwest would go in that direction.

“Quite candidly, the team I work with here looks at those investments,” Notebaert told industry analysts. “With DirecTV, they have a new box that integrates high-speed Internet access at 20-Meg or even a 10-Meg line into broadcast model from satellite. It doesn’t matter whether it is on FiOS or the broadcast model in satellite -- why in the world would you go do that and incur all that expense when … you can still do the broadcast model with more HD than anybody else has got with DirecTV.”

Instead, Qwest has achieved 8% video market penetration through its DirecTV partnership, without incurring any capital expense at all, he said. The outgoing chairman went farther, saying he fully expects Qwest’s board of directors to choose a successor that shares his financial discipline.

Certainly, Notebaert has been consistent in his tenure at Qwest, focusing on getting the company’s financial house in order and at restoring its integrity as an operator. He leaves after five years, having done both. And he’s clearly not expecting that record to be undone by a Qwest version of FiOS or U-verse.

E-mail me at cwilson3@telephonyonline.com.