All that could be pulled into the West umbrella.

Qwest is definitely the orphan Bell. I really don't see Qwest as an attractive acquisition target for several years.

If this works for Level 3, this is a real turning point. This really gives them a good footprint in the mid-Atlantic and the Southeast.

They're continuing to show stable revenues and to reap the benefits of the cost-cutting they did last year.

The one thing that Qwest has is its local franchise, and over the next two years it's going to become increasingly embattled as (cable company) Comcast starts rolling out more aggressively with their digital voice service. I don't think they get acquired at all.

I think there still were some hoping that BellSouth and Qwest would come together, so this takes away a possible merger partner for Qwest.