Posted on 08/17/2020 10:26:52 AM PDT by ransomnote
The Department of Justice announced today that CenturyLink, Inc. has agreed to settle allegations that CenturyLink violated the court-ordered Final Judgment designed to prevent anticompetitive effects arising from its acquisition of Level 3 Communications, Inc.
Despite provisions in the Final Judgment barring CenturyLink from soliciting customers that switched to the buyer of the divestiture assets, CenturyLink failed to comply, initiating contact on over 70 occasions over more than a year with former Level 3 customers who elected to switch to the divestiture buyer in the Boise City-Nampa, Idaho MSA (Boise MSA). CenturyLink does not deny the United States’ allegations and has agreed to the Amended Final Judgment.
“When a defendant violates the terms of a settlement decree, it must be held accountable to its obligations to the department and the American consumer,” said Assistant Attorney General (AAG) Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s motion to amend the Final Judgment ensures that consumers get the benefit of competition otherwise lost by CenturyLink’s acquisition of Level 3 Communications. I also commend CenturyLink for its cooperation in resolving the department’s concerns.”
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division today filed an unopposed motion in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to amend the current Final Judgment, entered on March 6, 2018, in order to resolve the department’s concerns. As part of the settlement, CenturyLink has agreed to:
These provisions will allow the divestiture buyer to have the benefit of the original court order which was designed to enable the divestiture buyer to replace competition lost as a result of CenturyLink’s acquisition of Level 3, ensure that CenturyLink follows the court order going forward, and recoup taxpayer funds. CenturyLink also agreed to the addition mandated by AAG Delrahim of the four new standard provisions that the department has required in all recent antitrust settlements that make the Antitrust Division’s consent decrees easier to enforce.
CenturyLink, one of the largest wireline telecommunications providers in the United States, is the incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) in portions of 37 states and is also a global communications, hosting, cloud, and IT services company. The company provides broadband, voice, video, data, and managed services over a robust 450,000 route-mile global network, connecting approximately 170,000 fiber-based on-net enterprise buildings. In 2019, CenturyLink had revenues of approximately $22.4 billion.
Suddenlink will be next. They are a den of thieves.
SuddenLink is a crappy Tier 2 carrier that resells ILEC (Regional Carrier) products and provides few last mile connections in mostly rural areas. CenturyLink is a Regional Carrier with limited Local Carrier facilities mostly based in metropolitan areas, so their scope of products and services are far larger and reaching than anything SuddenLink can ever hope for. This larger footprint also means that CenturyLink can leverage monopolistic pricing tactics, which they have been guilty of for years.
“CenturyLink failed to comply, initiating contact on over 70 occasions over more than a year with former Level 3 customers who elected to switch to the divestiture buyer in the Boise City-Nampa, Idaho MSA..”
Oh the horror! I’m surprised they didn’t send Ruby Ridge style SWAT teams in the middle of the night!
Meanwhile, Clinton, Comey, Clapper, Brennan et al are doing the skaters waltz.
I tried to switch to Centurylink a while back. The company’s computers confirmed that I could get a signal and offered a package. The phone line was already hooked up, and I’d paid them for the first month.
They never replied at all or sent a modem. I guess that they didn’t want the account. Weird company.
I have had CenturyLink before. Crappy 2MB DSL for the same price as Suddenstink.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.