, or '''EMBARQ''' is the fourth largest
Local Exchange Carrier in the United States (below the
Baby Bells ) and the largest independent local provider, serving customers in 18 states and providing local, long distance, high-speed data and wireless services to residential and business customers. It is formerly the local telephone division (LTD) of
Sprint Nextel . It is traded on the
New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EQ. First year total shareholder return exceeded 50%.
The
Las Vegas, Nevada , metropolitan area is its largest market.
{Link without Title} The company consists of approximately 20,000 employees.
Telephone directories for EMBARQ customers are published by
R.H. Donnelley .
Approximately $6.5 billion in debt was transferred from
Sprint Nextel to the new company at the time of the spinoff. EMBARQ produces more than $6 billion in revenues annually.
EMBARQ trademarks are the property of a subsidiary named . The actual name of the publicly traded holding company is Embarq Corporation.
It began trading on the
NYSE on
May 18 ,
2006 , under the
Ticker Symbol "EQ."
EMBARQ's coverage territory includes that of the former
ILEC companies of Carolina Telephone & Telegraph, United Telephone Company, and
Centel (Central Telephone Company), which combined were part of the Local Telecom Division of Sprint Nextel prior to the spinoff of ILEC assets into EMBARQ. While the EMBARQ corporation was recently established, the company's heritage goes back to 1899. At that time, the genesis company was named Browns Local Telephone company.
Embarq provides its local service through
Operating Companies . The states that it provides service to include:
Embarq places focus on sales of four strategic products: telephone service, high-speed internet, DISH Network satellite TV, and wireless phones. Embarq offers bundled services to customers, with the convenience of one monthly bill and provides discounts to customers for adding additional services.
Embarq telephone service is a traditional Plain-old telephone system (
POTS ). Common offerings include features such as caller id, call waiting, 3-way calling, call forwarding, and anonymous call rejection.
Embarq offers many long distance plans, including available unlimited domestic direct-dialed calling. Embarq acts as a reseller for Sprint Long Distance services.
Depending on market and geographical region, Embarq offers several technologies under the
High-speed Internet name. Embarq covers the majority of their territory with
ADSL at speeds of 1.5 Mbit/s, 3.0 Mbit/s, or 5.0 Mbit/s as line conditions allow. Additional markets, such as parts of
Las Vegas, Nevada are serviced through fiber-to-the-premises (
FTTP ).
Embarq has an established partnership with
EchoStar -owned
DISH Network . Embarq offers a comprehensive lineup of DISH services to its customers. Discounts are available when eligible DISH programming is bundled with other qualifying Embarq products. In addition to the DISH Network partnership, Embarq also plans on testing a TV service (tenatively called Embarq TV) in the near future. Details are scarce, but the service is rumored to be an
IPTV fiber-to-the-node service similar to
AT&T 's
U-verse .
Embarq has begun offering its wireless phone service throughout much of its territory. Embarq operates as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (
MVNO ) for Sprint PCS. Embarq utilizes the CDMA band, and their handsets connect primarily to Sprint PCS towers. However, Embarq handsets are capable of roaming onto CDMA networks from other carriers, as well.
