Embarq Internet

In December 2004, Sprint announced that they would be acquiring Nextel and Embarq was the local telecommunications company spun off from the merger between the two companies. The merger was completed in August 2005 and the Embarq head office was located in Overland Park, Kansas. Embarq became incorporated in May 2006 and the company was publicly traded in the United States on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2009, a merger of CenturyTel and Embarq followed, which resulted in the creation of what is now known as CenturyLink.

Embarq History

Before the merger, Embarq was the largest local exchange carrier in the country and was a member of the Fortune 500 . The business had operations in a service area of 18 states with emphasis towards Ohio, North Carolina, Nevada (Las Vegas) and Florida. Embarq provided their services predominantly to small/mid-size cities in the US, had over 7.3 million customers, and employed an estimated 18,000 employees. Embarq had a broad customer base which offered business customers and residential customers landline phone with long distance phone service features, satellite TV service, and high speed internet. Their business goals were to focus on offering customer-practical, innovative products with competitive pricing options. In order to compete with competition from cell phone companies and voice over IP technologies; Embarq tried to act as a mobile virtual network operator, selling high speed internet connections. This meant that they bought the excess data capacity from other wireless providers and re-sold it under their own brand name. Additionally; they offered wholesale communications services, communications equipment, and data networking services to businesses.

The history of Embarq, Sprint, and CenturyLink can be dated back to 1899 with the creation of Brown Telephone Company in Abilene, Kansas, US by Cleyson L. Brown. The home telephone service company expanded through collaboration with companies that had similar interest in research and development, as well as through a number of acquisitions. The first of these mergers occurred in 1903 when Brown had merged with 14 other companies; creating Union Telephone and Telegraph. Following this, they continued go through a number of renames and spin-offs. The next would be United Telephone Company in 1911; making it the 2nd largest telephone company in Kansas. In 1925 Brown formed a holding company called United Telephone and Electric, which held 68 subsidiaries. These subsidiaries were a vast portfolio, diversifying from telephone companies, creameries, grocers, refineries, lumber mills and more. In 1939, they restructured and renamed themselves to United Utilities. In 1972 the company was again renamed to United Telecommunications (United Telecom). This was done to better match its service mix which was predominantly the communication unit. In 1986 one of it's subsidiaries, U.S. Telephone Communications, had merged in a 50-50 joint venture with Sprint. This gave the company availability to long distance services. In 1991 United Telecom acquired Sprint and changed its name to Sprint Corporation to unify all business units under the same brand name. It was in 2005 which the merger between Sprint and Nextel Communications Inc occurred to spin off their local telephone operations into a separate company to maintain their focus on wireless services.

The results of the merger were revealed in February 2006 with a new name and logo. They wanted something that showed innovation, and was unique; which is where the name Embarq is first introduced with its' green origami airplane logo. They offered a variety of packages and product availability in communications services to customers. These varied from local phone service, satellite dish network, to a wired or wireless internet connection with a number of bundles available. After operating for just under 3 years, on October 27, 2008, Embarq annouced the acquisition of the company by CenturyTel. On July 1, 2009 the CenturyTel acquisition of Embarq was completed in a stock-for-stock transaction. The merger resulted in the rebranding of Embarq and CenturyTel, into what is now known as CenturyLink. CenturyLink currently offers a number of home amenities such as: home telephone services, internet, and TV. Their business services include: business phone, internet, TV, and cloud applications. They also offer around the clock, 24/7 customer service support, managed & IT consulting, and network security.

While Embarq no longer exists as its own entity, customers can still purchase a service plan under the CenturyLink brand name. When Embarq was still operating under its name, they offered a download speed as fast as 5 Mbps, and an upload speed of 640 Kbps with a free modem included in plans. They also had security features including virus and spyware blockers, as well as a popup blocker by EarthLink. Some of the more exclusive features for the time that Embarq offered included music streaming access anywhere with an internet connection and 4,000 movies & concerts available for use at the users request with both download and streaming capability for an optimal user experience. Embarqmail users can still sign in to their their Embarq mail account online by using Century Links email portal on their website. Using the company selection menu, users can type in their account information and access their same email address with Embarq instead of having to create a new account. CenturyLink Internet offers a number of options including: savings on bundle combination pricing, price for life guarantees, no-term obligations on contract terms, speeds up to 1,000 Mbps, all with a service area location of 37 states across the United States.

Current CenturyLink competitors include other DSL or fiber internet providers like EarthLink or AT&T, as well as some cable companies like Spectrum and Xfinity. Some remote or Rural clients may find that a satellite, or wireless plan may offer internet speeds that are comparable to, if not better than some wired internet plans in their area.