Get ready to write checks to a new telco: Embarq has been bought by CenturyTel. The Lousiana-based company, founded in 1930, bought Embarq for $11.6B in cash and debt assumption. CenturyTel is, like Embarq, largely in the business of providing service in small markets and rural areas.
For those of y’all new in these parts, Centel was long our telco here. It was started in 1900, and come 1993 they had 1.5M landline customers in seven states. That was when they were bought by Sprint, which meant that, weirdly for the time, a long distance provider was our local phone company. Sprint spun off Embarq in 2006, which consisted of Centel and their other local phone assets. And now that they’ve gotten their name and logo updated, they’ll be CenturyTel. Let’s all practice cursing a new business name. For those of us who still slip and call the phone company “Centel,” at least the new name is a little closer.
I still have my land-line mostly for my DSL. Plus, for me, it’s like cutting the umbilical cord. After all, I remember when they used to charge you “by the min.” for long distance on the TELCO and you had “in-state” and “out-of-state” rates. What a ripoff! Oh, and way back, when you used to “rent” your phone from Ma Bell. What a stingy bitch! Good riddance.
Ugggggggggg! It really stunk when I had to switch a gazillion things from my earthlink email to embarqmail email. I can’t believe I might have to do that again.