Qwest Communications International - Goes Public As Qwest Communications International, Inc., 1997

The company went public as Qwest Communications International, Inc. in 1997. Its initial public offering (IPO) on June 23, 1997, raised $297 million on the sale of 13.5 million shares. Only 14 percent of the company was offered to the public; the rest was held by Philip Anschutz, who became the new company's chairman. Anschutz hired Joesph Nacchio from AT&T to become Qwest's new president and CEO. In its first year as a public company Qwest reported revenue of $697 million.

At the time it went public, Qwest had already negotiated for nearly 90 percent of the rights-of-way it needed to complete its national fiber-optic network. Qwest believed that a ground-based network would be more reliable for the transmission of data than satellite-based networks. The company expected that demand for high-speed networks that could transmit data as well as audio and video would explode over the next five years. Demand would also be fueled by the regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs), who would be able to offer long-distance services under deregulation.

Qwest reached agreements with three companies to lease about half of the capacity of Qwest's network for an investment of about $1 billion. They were Frontier Corp., the fifth-largest long-distance carrier in the United States; WorldCom Inc., the fourth-largest long-distance carrier and the largest Internet access provider with its acquisition of UUNet; and GTE Corp., the largest non-Bell local telephone company. Later in 1997 Qwest acquired Colorado's largest ISP, SuperNet Inc., for $20 million. Qwest also launched the first advertising campaign for its fiber-optic telecommunications network with the tagline, "Ride the light."