Awards and Recognition

Qwest has received numerous distinguished awards from the industry, and from business and community organizations for exceptional performance, service to customers, community leadership and commitment to diversity.

2008 Honors

• Qwest wins seven awards from Nemertes Research:
  • Best Customer Service
  • Best Network Performance & Reliability
  • Best Value
  • Best Overall Carrier Performance
  • Favorite Provider
  • MPLS: Best Customer Service
  • Ethernet: Best Customer Service
• Qwest has been honored as North American Partner of the Year by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company.
• Qwest attorney Leonard Segreti won the Colorado Lawyers Committee's 2007 Individual/Team of the Year Award.
• Corporate Counsel Magazine named the Qwest legal department as its 2008 "Best Legal Department" winner.
• Qwest Mass Markets Group receives 2008 Gallup Great Workplace award. This prestigious award goes to companies with the most productive and engaged workforces in the world.
• Colorado Super Lawyers magazine named three Qwest attorneys to its prestigious list of Super Lawyers. Recognized in 2007 and now again in 2008 for professional and community excellence were Rich Baer, Stefan Stein and David Miller.
• Qwest Wholesale wins "Best In Class" awards from leading research firm ATLANTIC-ACM.

2007 Honors

• Qwest’s Wholesale Markets group received multiple best-in-class honors from wholesale customers in a survey conducted by Atlantic-ACM’s 2007 Metro Carrier Report Card survey.
• The financial services of Edward Jones honored Qwest as a Vendor Recognition Program recipient in the Alliance Vendor category.
• Government Computing News named Qwest Government Services senior vice president, Diana Gowen, “Industry Executive of the Year.”
• Latin Business Magazine honored Qwest for a second year on the ‘Corporate Diversity Honor Roll.’
• For the first time in history, Qwest ranked highest in overall customer service satisfaction among high-speed Internet service providers in the West region, as measured by J.D. Power & Associates.
• Qwest earned the No. 2 spot throughout the West for wireless call quality in the September 2007 J.D. Power & Associates Wireless Call Quality Performance Study.
• Latina Style magazine named Qwest to its 10th annual list of “Style 50” – for being one of the top 50 companies for Latinas to work for in the United States.
• J.D. Power ranked DIRECTV highest in customer satisfaction in three regions of four regions– a first for DIRECTV.
• The Colorado Pledge to Diversity group recognized Qwest with its first “Distinction of Diversity” award for its commitment to diversity and for promoting diversity within the legal community.
• In the American Customer Satisfaction Index, Qwest secured the industry’s top spot in customer satisfaction, a ranking that’s even more significant given cable companies’ inclusion in the survey.
• Qwest takes first place in the ‘Colorado 50’ by the Rocky News, as the state’s biggest and best company.
• For the sixth consecutive year, Qwest tops the Directory Assistance (DA) in customer satisfaction in the Paisley National Directory Assistance Performance Index.
• Qwest was awarded The Networx Enterprise and Networx Universal contract from the U.S. government to bid on 135+ federal agencies over the next 10 years.
• J.D. Power satisfaction survey ranked Qwest number one as the top residential Internet service provider in the West region.
• J.D. Power ranked Qwest highest in call-quality performance among cell-phone users in the West Region.
• Colorado Super Lawyers magazine recognized three Qwest attorneys, naming them to a prestigious list of lawyers who are committed to professional excellence. Rich Baer, Stephan Stein and David Miller all made outstanding contributions.
• Qwest Governance was named best in telecom by a recent study by the Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS).  Qwest outperformed all telecommunication services companies and 94.2 percent of companies that make up the Standard’s & Poor’s 500.
• For the seventh year, Qwest's Business Partner Program earned a five-star rating from VARBusiness, a publication focused exclusively on reseller and partner channels.
• Qwest received the top overall customer satisfaction score in a report about enterprise-class VoIP services by Forester, an industry analyst firm.  Qwest also ranked highest in overall market presence for business VoIP services.
• Qwest recently earned the highest rating given in Light Reading's North American Scorecard, a quarterly ranking of top-tier communication service providers.
• Hispanic magazine recognized Qwest in its February 2007 list of the 100 companies that contribute most to the Hispanic community.
• Qwest tops cable rival in HIS study in the February 2007 issue of Consumer Reports. Customers ranked Qwest higher than Comcast for overall high-speed Internet service in the annual survey of Consumer Reports subscribers.
• Small and medium-sized businesses named Qwest "Best Internet Services Provider" in the January 2007 issue of the Spokane Business Catalyst magazine. Qwest also won an award in the "Best Web Hosting Business" category.

Previous Honors

• In November 2006, The Paisley National Directory Assistance Performance Index ranked Qwest as the top performer in the local telecommunications carrier segment for directory-assistance services for the fifth consecutive time.
• In Atlantic-ACM's 2006 Metro Carrier Report Card: Wholesale and Business, wholesale customers ranked Qwest first place for customer service and provisioning among all regional Bell operating companies and incumbent local exchange carriers.
• The American Red Cross awarded Qwest with its prestigious Circle of Humanitarians Award in November 2006.
• Qwest was voted the Tri City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Annual 2006 Business of the Year in the Prescott, Ariz. area.
• The Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce voted Qwest the 2006 Corporation of the Year Award.
• Mel Gates, Qwest chief information security officer, was named Information Security Executive of the Year West by the Executive Alliance, 2006.
• The Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce voted Qwest the 2006 Corporate Advocate of the Year.
• HISPANIC Magazine voted Qwest on of the "Top 25 Places for Minorities to Find Opportunity for Advancement" in its April 2006 issue.
• Genesys, the world's #1 contact center software provider, has recognized Qwest as the Managed Services Partner of the Year for its leading contact center suite of services which includes QWCC, EZ Route and QRouting.
• Rising 14 more spots from 2005, Qwest Communications ranked #41 in the Top 100 Federal Prime Contractors for 2006 - Washington Technology.
• Qwest Communications International, Inc. ranks no. 160 on the 2006 list of the FORTUNE 500, with $13,903 million in revenues, up .7% from the previous year.
• Cisco Systems awarded Qwest its Customer Satisfaction Excellence award, or the "Gold Star" rating, the highest distinction a partner can achieve within the Cisco Channel Partner Program.
• Forrester Research placed Qwest best for overall 2006 strategic plans, tied for first on offering the most aggressive prices, and second for operational support systems in February 2006.
• Qwest Minnesota received a prestigious honor: the "Outstanding Community Partner Award" from the Minneapolis Red Cross in March 2006.
• Qwest was presented the "Spirit of Hope Award" by the Mile High United Way in March 2006.
• Qwest was voted the "Best in Region" award for outstanding campaign in the telecommunications and utilities industries by the Portland United Way in March 2006.
• Qwest won the "Best Labor/Management Partnership Award" by the Twin Cities United Way in March 2006.
• Qwest was voted the "Corporation of the Year Award" by the Arizona Hispanic Chamber in April 2006.
• Qwest was voted the "Corporate Friend of the Year Award" by the Sioux Empire American Red Cross in July 2006.
• Qwest was voted the "Corporate Sponsor of the Year Award" by Mi Casa Women?s Resource Center in August 2006.
• Qwest won the 2006 Innovation Award from NADO in September 2006.
• Oren Shaffer, Qwest CFO, was named 2005 Telecom Executive of the Year Award by the Denver Telecom Professionals
• Qwest was ranked one of the "Best Place to Work" by the Denver Business Journal, Minneapolis Business Journal and the Phoenix Business Journal (2005-06).
• Qwest was winner for brand promise in the Nuance Best Practices Competition (2005).
• Qwest won best practices award for new hire redesign from the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development (2005).
• Qwest was awarded the Minority Business Advocate of the Year by Minority Enterprise and Education Development (2005).
• Qwest was voted Corporate Hispanic Business Advocate of the Year by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (2005).
• Qwest was awarded the Corporate Partner of the Year by the American Red Cross Mile High Chapter (2005).
• Qwest was ranked among Colorado's 25 Most Powerful Businesses and Organizations by ColoradoBiz Magazine (2005).
• Qwest was awarded the Outstanding Corporate Commitment Award from the Colorado Bar Association (2005).
• Qwest ranked in the Top 100 Companies Providing the Most Opportunities to Hispanics by Hispanic Magazine (2005).
• Qwest was named for the Circle of Humanitarians Award from the American Red Cross (2005).
• Nortel Networks rated the Qwest customer premise equipment (CPE) program as "outstanding" in its Elite Partner Performance Assessment Program.
• Richard (Dick) Notebaert, Qwest Chairman and CEO, was named "Colorado?s Distinguished Communicator" by the Colorado International Association of Business Communicators.
• Qwest ranks #1 in directory assistance services according to the Paisley National Directory Assistance Performance Index (SM), which measures database accuracy, customer call fulfillment and overall customer service of national directory assistance providers. (11/29/05)
• Qwest iQ Networking™ received the "Best Value" award for wide-area networking (WAN) solutions. Network Computing determined Qwest's solution had "excellent reliability, a good services offering and, without a doubt, the best price...Qwest iQ Networking™ should be on anyone's shortlist." Network Computing, 8/4/05
• Qwest's virtual private network service (VPN) received top scores in the January 2004 issue of Network Computing Magazine. Qwest ranked second out of the four participating VPN service providers and received a grade of an "A-minus."
• Ranked #1 in America's Network Enterprise User Survey for Long-Distance Voice, VPN/Private IP Services, Outsourced Security Services, and Application Services. 6/1/2003.
• Ranked #1 among the nation's telephone service providers in the J.D. Power Residential Long Distance Customer Satisfaction Study. 7/18/01.
• Voted 'Hosting Center of the Year' in InfoWorld reader?s choice survey. InfoWorld Reader's Choice Award in 2001.
• www.irs.gov, designed and hosted by Qwest, ranks #1 on the Lycos 50 and Google search rankings at tax time. Throughout the year, it ranks in the top 50, often ahead of "Britney Spears," "Harry Potter," and "Star Wars" as search terms.
• Qwest earned first place in "The Colorado 50," the Rocky Mountain News' (RMN) second annual recognition of Colorado's best and biggest companies.
• Diversity Inc named Qwest one of the "The 20 Noteworthy Companies for Diversity," the magazine announced April 26, 2004.
• On May 12, 2004, the Holmes Report will present Qwest with the Bronze Sabre Award for its 2002-2003 advertising campaign entitled "Spirit of Service: The Making of Qwest's 'Generations' Campaign".
• In January 2004, Richard C. Notebaert voted "Executive of the Year" by the Denver Telecom Professionals (DTP) organization.
• Richard C. Notebaert ranked first in the 2003 "10 best quotes from PRWeek" for his quote "Who we are is our brand, and every employee has to live the brand. It goes beyond an ad company that gives you a nifty flavor of the month."