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Louisiana Company Centurytel Buys Embarq(Bristol Herald Courier Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 29--The $12 billion sale of Embarq to Louisiana company Centurytel is not expected to have an immediate impact locally. Embarq, which provides telephone service for the vast majority of the Tri-Cities and employs more than 700 people in the area, was acquired by a telecommunications company half its size based in Monroe, La., the company announced Monday. "It's way to early to tell what kind of an impact it will have," Vernon Fraley, Embarq's mid-Atlantic media relations officer said Tuesday. "Everything is going to stay the same for right now." Embarq provides telephone and Internet service to more than 200,000 people in the Tri-Cities, Fraley said. In addition, it's one of the area's top 100 employers, said Lisa Meadows, president and CEO of the Bristol Chamber of Commerce. "Hopefully, what this is going to do is allow them more latitude in offering more services and more competitively priced services," Meadows said. "I think that whenever you have change you need to be prepared and anticipate that there may be some things that will change. But we think this change and the buyout will offer more opportunities." Embarq, formerly a part of Sprint Nextel until it spun off in 2006, has played a significant role in the area as a major telecommunications provider as well as community involvement, Meadows said. "They always get involved in beautification projects and leadership chambers and have always shown their support in the resources that they've offered us, whether that be volunteers or sponsorship," she said. Currently, Embarq, No. 381 on the Fortune 500 list, operates in 18 states and employs more than 17,000 people. The company is the largest independent local provider in the United States and serves local, long distance, high-speed data and wireless services to customers in 18 states, according to the company's Web site. The combined company would reach across 33 states in mostly rural areas, operating 8 million access lines, serving 2 million broadband customers and 400,000 video customers, according to a news statement from CenturyTel. [email protected]| (276) 635-2531 To see more of the Bristol Herald Courier or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.tricities.com. Copyright (c) 2008, Bristol Herald Courier, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |