Bells Are Ringing

Nacchio showed a prickly side after the Economist ran an article comparing him to a character in a Martin Scorsese film. "A short, plumpish, Brooklyn-born Italian-American, Mr. Nacchio has all the swagger and verbal braggadocio of Joe Pesci's mobster in the film 'Goodfellas,'" wrote the magazine in June.

Nacchio let the media know that he stands 5 feet 11 inches and weighs 193 pounds, and he sent a letter to the magazine stating, "If you ask anyone who has ever walked alongside me, they would tell you I don't swagger. And to correct one of your implications, the overwhelming majority of Italian-Americans are not mobsters."

Now that Nacchio is about to head up Colorado's telephone monopoly, he may have to learn to be less sensitive. He already seems to have been coached in "targeted communications" by US West's public-relations staff.

Before the merger deal, Nacchio and other Qwest executives were scornful of US West's service record. But now that the deal has been finalized, Nacchio is singing a different tune. "I feel pretty confident that Sol [Trujillo] has made the capital investments necessary to keep up with demand," Nacchio told the Denver Post, adding that the company had been unfairly criticized for its service record.

Even though the final merger is still months away, Qwest executives are already busy making plans to offer high-speed Internet access and data transmission in major markets all over the country.

The question now is whether Qwest will take local phone service seriously.
Gronbach insists the merged company won't neglect local telephone service. "We're talking about reducing the dividend to shareholders and reinvesting that money into the phone network," he says. "Post-merger, we intend to focus on that."

But the temptation to use the local phone monopoly as a cash cow for high-tech empire-building may be hard to resist, especially since there's already a precedent.

"US West didn't weed the garden they'd already planted; they were spending their time planting new gardens," says Diddlebock. "Their emphasis has to be to continue to deliver plain old telephone service."