Three weeks ago, on Thursday 04-June-2009, in "CenturyTel plus
Embarq (Sprint's United & Centel) becomes: CenturyLink" I had
posted that the day before, on Wednesday 03-June-2009, the new
name for the (pending) merged CenturyTel and Embarq (old Sprint
United and Centel) ILECs was announced to be CenturyLink --
that all of the state regulatory agencies fo the affected
states had approved the merger, and that now only federal
approval (FCC) was still needed.

And late in the afternoon of Wednesday 24-June-2009 (today),
the FCC did give its approval for the merger.

There are numerous news reports on this, which can be found
from doing google news searches.

For several weeks now, there have been the following specific
new webpages/URLs regarding the proposed merger:

http://www.centurylink.com
http://www.centurytelembarqmerger.com/

I don't know if they will consolidate the various OCNs (Operating
Company Numbers) as used in NECA, Neustar-NANPA, and Telcordia-TRA
numbering/routing/network/rating/etc. documents... CenturyTel has
preserved different OCNs for the numerous ILECs they have taken
over throughout the years, including different ratecenters of GTE
and Contel at various times. There are several operating company
names and numbers for CenturyTel in Louisiana depending on which
particular part of GTE or Contel it was prior to the 1970s! And each
successive local telco that CenturyTel took over has a unique OCN!

The corporate HQ will be in CenturyTel's legacy HQ of Monroe LA,
in the northern part of the state where CenturyTel's legacy
operating area originated, although Monroe LA itself is a mid-size
city which has always been "Bell" (Southern Bell/South Central Bell/
BellSouth, now part of SBC's at&t).

Overland Park KS (in the Kansas City area), the legacy HQ for
United/Sprint/Embarq, will also continue to be a major point of
corporate operations.

CenturyTel has been mostly small rural areas, and has purchased
many local independent telcos over the decades. It has also taken
over many one-time GTE and Contel exchange areas, some dating back
to the 1970s (old GTE in Louisiana was sold to CenturyTel circa 1972;
old Contel in Louisiana was sold to CenturyTel circa 1977), but some
more recently in the 1990s (GTE and Contel that GTE chose not to
retain following the circa 1991 GTE/Contel merger) and in 2000 and
2002 (more legacy GTE and Contel that VeriZon chose not to retain
following the formation of VeriZon in 2000). While there have been
some mid-size towns and cities that have since become CenturyTel,
these are still smaller communities.

On the other hand, Embarq (old Centel and old United) has had some
larger communities when compared with CenturyTel, including
Tallahassee FL (also the state capital; old Centel) and Fort Myers
and other nearby areas in Florida (old United).

But this merger will now mean that CenturyTel (under the new
CenturyLink name) will inherit a rather sizeable metro area from
Embarq (legacy Sprint/Centel), that being the Las Vegas NV metro area!

I do wonder if the new CenturyLink will hold onto all of its
properties after the merger is complete -- GTE and later VZ sold off
many one-time Contel areas and even long-time GTE areas in the
1990s/2000s as mentioned above!

At present, CenturyTel is the ILEC for various ratecenters in the
following 26 states:

Alabama, Arkansas, California (SMALL part actually associated
with eastern Oregon), Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nevada (SMALL part actually associated with
southern Idaho), New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma
(SMALL part actually associated with northwestern Arkansas),
Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

At present, CenturyTel is the ILEC for various ratecenters in the
following 26 states:

Alabama, Arkansas, California (SMALL part actually associated
with eastern Oregon), Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nevada (SMALL part actually associated with
southern Idaho), New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma
(SMALL part actually associated with northwestern Arkansas),
Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

At present, Embarq is the ILEC for various ratecenters in the
following 18 states:

Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada
(which includes Las Vegas Metro, Centel/Sprint/Embarq's largest
operational area of all), New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia,
Washington, Wyoming.

Some of these states only had United in the old days, some only
had Centel in the old days, some had BOTH United and Centel in
the old days.

At one time, United also had ILEC operations in South Dakota,
Iowa, and Arkansas. At one time, Centel also had ILEC operations
in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois.

Centel's operations in Illinois included some small towns in
northwestern Illinois which were sold in 1998 to Gallatin River
Telco (which is now part of CenturyTel as described earlier),
and two suburbs just north of Chicago -- Park Ridge IL and
Des Plaines IL. These two northern Chicago suburbs were "islands"
of Step-by-Step independent telco exchanges, surrounded by
(AT&T-held) Illinois (Bell) Telephone Panel/#1XB for decades.
I have heard that their SXS switches were eventually replaced
with #5XB for better compatibility, although Automatic Electric
did make some DP/RP "kludges" in the 1950s! Circa 1996,
Sprint/Centel sold Park Ridge and Des Plaines IL over to
Ameritech/IL-Bell, which subsequently was taken over by SBC,
and is now an "at&t" ILEC.

It does not appear that CenturyTel or Centel/United ever had
ILEC operations in Canada, the Caribbean, or the Pacific (other
than PTI in Alaska, which CenturyTel chose NOT to retain when
they acquired PTI circa 1997/98).

Assuming that CenturyTel and Embarq don't sell-off various
entire state operations either as their own decision, or to
comply with FCC/FTC/DOJ/etc. requirements, it is said that
the merged entity will have ILEC operations in 33 states.

As mentioned above, CenturyTel presently has ILEC operations in
26 states, while Embarq presently has legacy United and Centel
ILEC operations in 18 states. Eleven states presently have BOTH
CenturyTel and Embarq ILEC operations:
IN, MN, MO, NV, NC, OH, OR, TN, TX, WA, WY

Again, assuming no sell-offs of CenturyTel or Embarq exchanges due
to the pending merger, the 33 states of the merged CenturyLink will
be as follows:

Alabama (CenturyTel)
Arkansas (CenturyTel)
California (CenturyTel)
Colorado (CenturyTel)
Florida (Embarq)
Georgia (CenturyTel)
Idaho (CenturyTel)
Illinois (CenturyTel)
Indiana (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Kansas (Embarq)
Iowa (CenturyTel)
Louisiana (CenturyTel)
Michigan (CenturyTel)
Minnesota (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Mississippi (CenturyTel)
Missouri (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Montana (CenturyTel)
Nebraska (Embarq)
Nevada (CenturyTel, Embarq)
New Jersey (Embarq)
New Mexico (CenturyTel)
North Carolina (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Ohio (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Oklahoma (CenturyTel)
Oregon (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Pennsylvania (Embarq)
South Carolina (Embarq)
Tennessee (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Texas (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Virginia (Embarq)
Washington (CenturyTel, Embarq)
Wisconsin (CenturyTel)
Wyoming (CenturyTel, Embarq)

There are also pending area code overlays, as well as area code relief
planning taking place, in several of the above states, including where
CenturyTel and/or Embarq has service areas.

Mark J. Cuccia
markjcuccia at yahoo dot com
Lafayette LA, formerly of New Orleans LA pre-Katrina