[June 30, 2009] Federal Communications Commission approves Embarq's merger [Public Opinion, Chambersburg, Pa.] Tweet (Public Opinion (Chambersburg, PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jun. 30--The Federal Communications Commission approved Embarq's merger with CenturyTel -- the last approval needed before the two companies can combine. The merger is scheduled to take effect Wednesday. Embarq, which broke off from Sprint in 2006, provides local and long-distance telephone, Internet and satellite TV services locally and in several other states. The combined company will begin operating under the name CenturyLink. In its ruling, the FCC acknowledged there were concerns over potential anticompetitive risks. Both companies serve primarily rural areas. However, the FCC said it is "not concerned" with anticompetitive risks and said "the potential public interest benefits from the proposed merger, taken as a whole, outweigh any potential public interest harms." There are 54 Embarq service territories that are adjacent to 59 CenturyTel territories, but these adjacent service territories affect less than 3 percent of the exchanges involved in the transaction and only 281,000 out of more than 7.3 million lines served. The FCC said in the few areas where the two companies directly compete against each other for enterprise customers, there are several other options available for telecommunications services. The combined company will operate in 33 states. CenturyTel and Embarq will have approximately 7.5 million access lines, more than 2.1 million broadband customers and more than 440,000 video subscribers. According to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, Embarq has approximately 326,000 customers in Pennsylvania, across 25 counties, including Franklin, Fulton, Adams and Cumberland counties. CenturyTel serves approximately 2.1 million local access lines in 25 states. CenturyLink expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CTL, the current symbol of CenturyTel Inc. Currently Embarq is headquartered in Overland Park, Kan., and CenturyTel is based in Monroe, La. The new company will be headquartered in Monroe. The merger received all the necessary state approvals late last month and shareholders had signed off on the agreement in January. ------ Marcus Rauhut can be reached at [email protected] or 262-4752. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]