Thanks to Ann Higgins for the heads up on the latest news on the Qwest-Century-Link merger. As you might imagine it has been a big part of their Q.Marketplace Meeting (the annual meeting for indirect sales agents who are part of Qwest’s Business Partner Program). Here’s the word on what they are hearing there…

Ancell [Chris Ancell, Qwest’s executive vice president of BMG] told Q.Marketplace attendees that the merger is on track to be completed in the first half as planned. He said, from a regulatory standpoint, approvals from four states and the FCC remain, but are expected within 90 days. From an operations standpoint, the two companies have been talking and planning for integration, going so far as to decide what people will have what roles in the combined company. Those decisions have been made in most divisions through the first three tiers of management with layers four, five and, in some cases, six yet to go.

Another update…

Stephanie Comfort, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for Qwest, said the acquisition was in large part about driving scale, but she also said each of the companies separately identified the same top three areas for growth: managed services/cloud services, video and wireless.

And some fast reported facts on the new company:

• They will have revenue of $18.68 billion.
• They will have 48,000 employees.
• They will have 184,000 route miles of fiber.

Yet to be decided or at least announced is which brand will support the new business. It sounds as if they’ll use both for a while.