PART I—FINANCIAL INFORMATION
ITEM 1. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
QWEST CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(UNAUDITED)
| Three Months Ended June 30, | Six Months Ended June 30, |
| 2016 | 2015 | 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| OPERATING REVENUES |
| Operating revenues | $ | 1,573 | 1,618 | 3,172 | 3,254 |
| Operating revenues - affiliates | 650 | 604 | 1,304 | 1,185 |
| Total operating revenues | 2,223 | 2,222 | 4,476 | 4,439 |
| OPERATING EXPENSES |
| Cost of services and products (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) | 731 | 743 | 1,439 | 1,435 |
| Selling, general and administrative | 235 | 256 | 485 | 526 |
| Operating expenses - affiliates | 231 | 238 | 482 | 486 |
| Depreciation and amortization | 424 | 464 | 843 | 926 |
| Total operating expenses | 1,621 | 1,701 | 3,249 | 3,373 |
| OPERATING INCOME | 602 | 521 | 1,227 | 1,066 |
| OTHER (EXPENSE) INCOME |
| Interest expense | (120 | ) | (119 | ) | (241 | ) | (237 | ) |
| Interest expense - affiliates, net | (15 | ) | (13 | ) | (29 | ) | (26 | ) |
| Other income, net | — | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Total other expense, net | (135 | ) | (131 | ) | (268 | ) | (262 | ) |
| INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAX EXPENSE | 467 | 390 | 959 | 804 |
| Income tax expense | 179 | 152 | 367 | 319 |
| NET INCOME | $ | 288 | 238 | 592 | 485 |

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
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QWEST CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME
(UNAUDITED)
| Three Months Ended June 30, | Six Months Ended June 30, |
| 2016 | 2015 | 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| NET INCOME | $ | 288 | 238 | 592 | 485 |
| OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME: |
| Foreign currency translation adjustment, net of $—, $—, $— and $— tax | 3 | — | — | — |
| Other comprehensive income | 3 | — | — | — |
| COMPREHENSIVE INCOME | $ | 291 | 238 | 592 | 485 |

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
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QWEST CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(UNAUDITED)
| As of June 30, 2016 | As of December 31, 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| ASSETS |
| CURRENT ASSETS |
| Cash and cash equivalents | $ | 4 | 3 |
| Accounts receivable, less allowance of $48 and $47 | 688 | 688 |
| Advances to affiliates | 811 | 788 |
| Other | 148 | 123 |
| Total current assets | 1,651 | 1,602 |
| NET PROPERTY, PLANT AND EQUIPMENT |
| Property, plant and equipment | 12,619 | 12,182 |
| Accumulated depreciation | (5,182 | ) | (4,808 | ) |
| Net property, plant and equipment | 7,437 | 7,374 |
| GOODWILL AND OTHER ASSETS |
| Goodwill | 9,354 | 9,354 |
| Customer relationships, less accumulated amortization of $3,549 and $3,264 | 2,150 | 2,435 |
| Other intangible assets, less accumulated amortization of $1,435 and $1,383 | 539 | 613 |
| Other, net | 98 | 92 |
| Total goodwill and other assets | 12,141 | 12,494 |
| TOTAL ASSETS | $ | 21,229 | 21,470 |
| LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDER'S EQUITY |
| CURRENT LIABILITIES |
| Current maturities of long-term debt | $ | 509 | 242 |
| Accounts payable | 350 | 369 |
| Note payable - affiliate | 884 | 855 |
| Accrued expenses and other liabilities |
| Salaries and benefits | 186 | 211 |
| Income and other taxes | 165 | 189 |
| Other | 146 | 135 |
| Current affiliate obligations, net | 94 | 97 |
| Advance billings and customer deposits | 322 | 324 |
| Total current liabilities | 2,656 | 2,422 |
| LONG-TERM DEBT | 6,726 | 6,997 |
| DEFERRED CREDITS AND OTHER LIABILITIES |
| Deferred revenues | 123 | 137 |
| Deferred income taxes, net | 1,861 | 1,896 |
| Affiliate obligations, net | 1,003 | 1,051 |
| Other | 61 | 60 |
| Total deferred credits and other liabilities | 3,048 | 3,144 |
| COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES (Note 5) |
| STOCKHOLDER'S EQUITY |
| Common stock - one share without par value, owned by Qwest Services Corporation | 10,050 | 10,050 |
| Accumulated deficit | (1,251 | ) | (1,143 | ) |
| Total stockholder's equity | 8,799 | 8,907 |
| TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDER'S EQUITY | $ | 21,229 | 21,470 |

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
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QWEST CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(UNAUDITED)
| Six Months Ended June 30, |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| OPERATING ACTIVITIES |
| Net income | $ | 592 | 485 |
| Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities: |
| Depreciation and amortization | 843 | 926 |
| Deferred income taxes | (35 | ) | (180 | ) |
| Provision for uncollectible accounts | 40 | 39 |
| Net long-term debt issuance costs and premium amortization | (7 | ) | (11 | ) |
| Accrued interest on affiliate note | 29 | 31 |
| Changes in current assets and liabilities: |
| Accounts receivable | (40 | ) | 8 |
| Accounts payable | (20 | ) | 30 |
| Accrued income and other taxes | (24 | ) | (14 | ) |
| Other current assets and liabilities, net | (40 | ) | (34 | ) |
| Other current assets and liabilities - affiliates, net | — | (4 | ) |
| Changes in other noncurrent assets and liabilities, net | (11 | ) | (23 | ) |
| Changes in affiliate obligations, net | (51 | ) | (4 | ) |
| Other, net | 8 | 5 |
| Net cash provided by operating activities | 1,284 | 1,254 |
| INVESTING ACTIVITIES |
| Payments for property, plant and equipment and capitalized software | (546 | ) | (564 | ) |
| Changes in advances to affiliates | (23 | ) | (383 | ) |
| Net cash used in investing activities | (569 | ) | (947 | ) |
| FINANCING ACTIVITIES |
| Net proceeds from issuance of long-term debt | 227 | 99 |
| Payments of long-term debt | (241 | ) | (106 | ) |
| Dividends paid to Qwest Services Corporation | (700 | ) | (300 | ) |
| Net cash used in financing activities | (714 | ) | (307 | ) |
| Net increase in cash and cash equivalents | 1 | — |
| Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period | 3 | 6 |
| Cash and cash equivalents at end of period | $ | 4 | 6 |
| Supplemental cash flow information: |
| Income taxes paid, net | $ | (401 | ) | (379 | ) |
| Interest paid (net of capitalized interest of $8 and $9) | $ | (249 | ) | (247 | ) |

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
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QWEST CORPORATION
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDER'S EQUITY
(UNAUDITED)
| Six Months Ended June 30, |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| COMMON STOCK |
| Balance at beginning of period | $ | 10,050 | 10,050 |
| Balance at end of period | 10,050 | 10,050 |
| ACCUMULATED DEFICIT |
| Balance at beginning of period | (1,143 | ) | (867 | ) |
| Net income | 592 | 485 |
| Dividends declared to Qwest Services Corporation | (700 | ) | (300 | ) |
| Balance at end of period | (1,251 | ) | (682 | ) |
| TOTAL STOCKHOLDER'S EQUITY | $ | 8,799 | 9,368 |

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.
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QWEST CORPORATION
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(UNAUDITED)
Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this report to "QC" refer to Qwest Corporation, references to "Qwest," "we," "us," and "our" refer to Qwest Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries, references to "QSC" refer to our direct parent company, Qwest Services Corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries, references to "QCII" refer to QSC's direct parent company and our indirect parent company, Qwest Communications International Inc., and its consolidated subsidiaries, and references to "CenturyLink" refer to QCII's direct parent company and our ultimate parent company, CenturyLink, Inc., and its consolidated subsidiaries.
(1) Basis of Presentation
General
We are an integrated communications company engaged primarily in providing an array of services to our residential and business customers. Our communications services include local voice, broadband, private line (including special access), network access, Ethernet, information technology, video and other ancillary services. In certain local and regional markets, we also provide local access and fiber transport services to competitive local exchange carriers.
We generate the majority of our total consolidated operating revenues from services provided in the 14-state region of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. We refer to this region as our local service area.
Our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2015, which was derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, and our unaudited interim consolidated financial statements provided herein have been prepared in accordance with the instructions for Form 10-Q. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in financial statements prepared in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America have been condensed or omitted pursuant to rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"); however, in our opinion, the disclosures made are adequate to make the information presented not misleading. We believe that these consolidated financial statements include all normal recurring adjustments necessary to fairly present the results for the interim periods. The consolidated results of operations for the first six months of the year are not necessarily indicative of the consolidated results of operations that might be expected for the entire year. These consolidated financial statements should be read in conjunction with the audited consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
The accompanying consolidated financial statements include our accounts and the accounts of our subsidiaries. Intercompany amounts and transactions with our consolidated subsidiaries have been eliminated. Transactions with our non-consolidated affiliates (referred to herein as affiliates) have not been eliminated.
We reclassified certain prior period amounts to conform to the current period presentation, including the categorization of our revenues. See Note 4—Products and Services Revenues for additional information. These changes had no impact on total operating revenues, total operating expenses or net income for any period.
Connect America Fund
In 2015, CenturyLink accepted funding from the Federal Communications Commission's ("FCC") Connect America Fund ("CAF") of approximately $500 million per year for six years to fund the deployment of voice and broadband capable infrastructure for approximately 1.2 million rural households and businesses in 33 states under the CAF Phase 2 high-cost support program. The funding from the CAF Phase 2 support program in these 33 states will substantially supplant funding from the interstate Universal Service Fund ("USF") high-cost program that we previously utilized to support voice services in high-cost rural markets. Of these amounts, approximately $150 million per year is attributable to our service area, to provide service to approximately 0.3 million rural households and businesses in 13 states. In late 2015, we began receiving these support payments from the FCC under the new CAF Phase 2 support program, which included monthly support payments at a higher rate than under the interstate USF support program. We recorded $24 million and $48 million more in revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, than in the comparable periods for 2015 with respect to our 13 states. We received a substantial one-time cumulative catch-up payment related to the first half of 2015 from the FCC in the third quarter of 2015, and, as a result, we do not expect funding from the CAF Phase 2 support program to materially change our "affiliate and other services" revenues for the full year 2016 when compared to the full year 2015.
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Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Financial Instruments
On June 16, 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board ("FASB") issued Accounting Standards Update ("ASU") 2016-13, “Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments” (“ASU 2016-13”). The primary impact of ASU 2016-13 for us is a change in the model for the recognition of credit losses related to our financial instruments from an incurred loss model, which recognized credit losses only if it was probable that a loss had been incurred to an expected loss model, which requires our management team to estimate the total credit losses expected on the portfolio of financial instruments. We are currently reviewing the requirements of the standard and evaluating the impact on our consolidated financial statements.
We are required to adopt the provisions of ASU 2016-13 effective January 1, 2020, but could elect to early adopt the provisions as of January 1, 2019. We expect to recognize the impacts of adopting ASU 2016-13 through a cumulative adjustment to retained earnings as of the date of adoption.
Share-based Compensation
On March 30, 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-09, “Improvement to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting" (“ASU 2016-09”). ASU 2016-09 modifies the accounting and associated income tax accounting for share-based compensation in order to reduce the cost and complexity associated with current generally accepted accounting principles. ASU 2016-09 is effective for us as of January 1, 2017, but early adoption may be elected. ASU 2016-09 includes different transition requirements for the different changes implemented, including some provisions which allow retrospective application. We have not determined when we will implement this standard or if we will retrospectively apply the requirements when allowed.
The primary provisions of ASU 2016-09 that we expect will affect our financial statements are: 1) a reclassification of the tax effect associated with the difference between the expense recognized for share-based payments and the associated tax deduction from additional paid-in capital to income tax expense; 2) a reclassification of the tax effect associated with the difference between compensation expense and associated deduction from financing cash flow to operating cash flow; and 3) an optional accounting policy election to account for forfeitures of share-based payment grants as they occur as opposed to our current policy of estimating the forfeitures on the grant date. These provisions would not have had a material impact on our previously issued financial statements; however, this is not necessarily representative of future impacts. Adoption of ASU 2016-09 may increase the volatility of income tax expense and cash flow from operating activities.
Leases
On February 25, 2016, the FASB issued ASU 2016-02, “Leases” (“ASU 2016-02”). The core principle of ASU 2016-02 will require lessees to present right-of-use assets and lease liabilities on their balance sheets for operating leases, which are currently not reflected on their balance sheets.
ASU 2016-02 is effective for annual and interim periods beginning January 1, 2019. Early adoption of ASU 2016-02 is permitted. Upon adoption of ASU 2016-02, we are required to recognize and measure leases at the beginning of the earliest period presented in our consolidated financial statements using a modified retrospective approach. The modified retrospective approach includes a number of optional practical expedients that we may elect to apply. We have not yet decided when we will adopt ASU 2016-02 or which practical expedient options we will elect. We are currently evaluating and assessing the impact ASU 2016-02 will have on us and our consolidated financial statements. As of the date of this report, we cannot provide any estimate of the impact of adopting ASU 2016-02.
Revenue Recognition
On May 28, 2014, the FASB issued ASU 2014-09, “Revenue from Contracts with Customers” (“ASU 2014-09”). ASU 2014-09 replaces virtually all existing generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) on revenue recognition and replaces them with a principles-based approach for determining revenue recognition using a new five step model. The core principle of ASU 2014-09 is that an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the entity expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. ASU 2014-09 also includes new accounting principles related to the deferral and amortization of contract acquisition and fulfillment costs. We currently do not defer any contract acquisition costs and we defer contract fulfillment costs only up to the extent of any revenue deferred.
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On July 9, 2015, the FASB approved the deferral of the effective date of ASU 2014-09 by one year until January 1, 2018, which is the date we plan to adopt this standard. ASU 2014-09 may be adopted by applying the provisions of this standard on a retrospective basis to the periods included in the financial statements or on a modified retrospective basis which would result in the recognition of a cumulative effect of adopting ASU 2014-09 in the first quarter of 2018. We have not yet decided which implementation method we will adopt. We are studying ASU 2014-09 and are assessing the impact this standard will have on us and our consolidated financial statements. We cannot at this time, however, provide any estimate of the impact of adopting ASU 2014-09.
(2) Long-Term Debt and Revolving Promissory Note
Long-term debt, including unamortized discounts and premiums, unamortized debt issuance costs and note payable - affiliate, were as follows:
| Interest Rates | Maturities | As of June 30, 2016 | As of December 31, 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Senior notes | 6.125% - 7.750% | 2017 - 2056 | $ | 7,229 | 7,229 |
| Term loan | 2.220% | 2025 | 100 | 100 |
| Capital lease and other obligations | Various | Various | 28 | 17 |
| Unamortized premiums, net | 8 | 16 |
| Unamortized debt issuance costs | (130 | ) | (123 | ) |
| Total long-term debt | 7,235 | 7,239 |
| Less current maturities | (509 | ) | (242 | ) |
| Long-term debt, excluding current maturities | $ | 6,726 | 6,997 |
| Note payable - affiliate | 6.795% | 2022 | $ | 884 | 855 |

New Issuance
In January 2016, QC issued $235 million aggregate principal amount of 7% Notes due 2056, in exchange for net proceeds, after deducting underwriting discounts and other expenses, of approximately $227 million. All of the 7% Notes are unsecured obligations and may be redeemed by QC, in whole or in part, on or after February 1, 2021, at a redemption price equal to 100% of the principal amount redeemed plus accrued and unpaid interest to the redemption date.
Repayment
On May 2, 2016, QC paid at maturity the $235 million principal amount and accrued and unpaid interest due under its 8.375% Notes.
Revolving Promissory Note
We are currently indebted to an affiliate of our ultimate parent company, CenturyLink, under a revolving promissory note that provides us with a funding commitment of up to $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount through June 30, 2022, of which $884 million was outstanding as of June 30, 2016. As of June 30, 2016, the weighted average interest rate was 6.795%. As of June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, this revolving promissory note is reflected on our consolidated balance sheets as a current liability under note payable - affiliate. As of June 30, 2016, $5 million of accrued interest is reflected in other current liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet. In accordance with the note agreement, all accrued interest and unpaid interest is capitalized to the unpaid principal balance on June 1 and December 1 of each year.
Covenants
The indentures governing our notes contain certain covenants including, but not limited to: (i) a prohibition on certain liens on our assets; and (ii) a limitation on mergers or sales of all, or substantially all, of our assets, which limitation requires that a successor assume the obligation with regard to these notes. These indentures do not contain any cross-default provisions.
Our senior notes were issued under indentures dated April 15, 1990 and October 15, 1999. These indentures do not contain any financial covenants, but do include restrictions that limit our ability to (i) incur, issue or create liens upon our property and (ii) consolidate with or merge into, transfer or lease all or substantially all of our assets to any other party.
As of June 30, 2016, we believe we were in compliance with the provisions and covenants of our debt agreements.
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(3) Fair Value Disclosure
Our financial instruments consist of cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, advances to affiliates, accounts payable, note payable - affiliate and long-term debt, excluding capital lease and other obligations. Due to their short-term nature, the carrying amounts of our cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, advances to affiliates, accounts payable, and note payable - affiliate approximate their fair values.
Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between independent and knowledgeable parties who are willing and able to transact for an asset or liability at the measurement date. We use valuation techniques that maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs when determining fair value and then we rank the estimated values based on the reliability of the inputs used following the fair value hierarchy set forth by the FASB. We determined the fair values of our long-term debt, including the current portion, based on quoted market prices where available or, if not available, based on discounted future cash flows using current market interest rates.
| Input Level | Description of Input |
| Level 1 | Observable inputs such as quoted market prices in active markets. |
| Level 2 | Inputs other than quoted prices in active markets that are either directly or indirectly observable. |
| Level 3 | Unobservable inputs in which little or no market data exists. |

| As of June 30, 2016 | As of December 31, 2015 |
| InputLevel | CarryingAmount | FairValue | CarryingAmount | FairValue |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Liabilities—Long-term debt, excluding capital lease and other obligations | 2 | $ | 7,207 | 7,579 | 7,222 | 7,456 |

(4) Products and Services Revenues
We are an integrated communications company engaged primarily in providing an array of services, including local voice, broadband, private line (including special access), network access, Ethernet, information technology, video and other ancillary services. We strive to maintain our customer relationships by, among other things, bundling our service offerings to provide our customers with a complete offering of integrated communications services.
From time to time, we may change the categorization of our products and services. During the second quarter of 2016, we determined that because of declines due to customer migration to other strategic products and services, certain of our services, specifically our private line (including special access) services, are now more closely aligned with our legacy services than with our strategic services. As a result, we now reflect these operating revenues as legacy services, and we have reclassified certain prior period amounts to conform to this change. The revision resulted in a reduction of revenue from strategic services and a corresponding increase in revenue from legacy services of $209 million and $426 million (net of $1 million and $2 million of deferred revenue included in affiliate and other services) for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, respectively.
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We now categorize our products, services and revenues among the following three categories:
| • | Strategic services, which include primarily broadband, Ethernet, video and other ancillary services; |

| • | Legacy services, which include primarily local voice, private line (including special access), Integrated Services Digital Network ("ISDN") (which use regular telephone lines to support voice, video and data applications), switched access, traditional wide area network ("WAN") (which allow a local communications network to link to networks in remote locations) and other ancillary services; and |

| • | Affiliates and other services, which consist primarily of CAF support payments, USF support payments, USF surcharges and services we provide to our affiliates. We receive federal support payments from both CAF Phase 1 and CAF Phase 2 programs, and support payments from both federal and state USF programs. These support payments are government subsidies designed to reimburse us for various costs related to certain telecommunications services, including the costs of deploying, maintaining and operating voice and broadband infrastructure in high-cost rural areas where we are not able to fully recover our costs from our customers. USF surcharges are the amounts we collect based on specific items we list on our customers' invoices to fund the FCC's universal service programs. We provide to our affiliates, telecommunication services that we also provide to external customers. In addition, we provide to our affiliates, computer system development and support services, network support and technical services. |

| Three Months Ended June 30, | Six Months Ended June 30, |
| 2016 | 2015 | 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Strategic services | $ | 674 | 650 | 1,345 | 1,291 |
| Legacy services | 814 | 904 | 1,658 | 1,833 |
| Affiliates and other services | 735 | 668 | 1,473 | 1,315 |
| Total operating revenues | $ | 2,223 | 2,222 | 4,476 | 4,439 |

We do not have any single external customer that provides more than 10% of our total consolidated operating revenues. Substantially all of our consolidated revenues come from customers located in the United States.
We recognize revenues in our consolidated statements of operations for certain USF surcharges and transaction taxes that we bill to our customers. Our consolidated statements of operations also reflect the related expense for the amounts we remit to the government agencies. The total amount of such surcharges and transaction taxes that we included in revenues aggregated approximately $38 million for each of the three months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively, and approximately $76 million and $75 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. These USF surcharges, where we record revenue, are included in "affiliate and other services" revenues and these transaction taxes are included in "legacy services" revenues. We also act as a collection agent for certain other USF and transaction taxes that we are required by government agencies to bill our customers, for which we do not record any revenue or expense because we only act as a pass-through agent.
Our operations are integrated into and reported as part of the consolidated segment data of CenturyLink. CenturyLink's chief operating decision maker ("CODM") is our CODM, but reviews our financial information on an aggregate basis only in connection with our quarterly and annual reports that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Consequently, we do not provide our discrete financial information to the CODM on a regular basis. As such, we believe we have one reportable segment.
(5) Commitments and Contingencies
Pending Matters
Subsidiaries of CenturyLink, Inc., including us, are among hundreds of companies in an industry-wide dispute, raised in nearly 100 federal lawsuits (filed between 2014 and 2016) that have been consolidated in the United States District Court for the District of Northern Texas for pretrial procedures. The disputes relate to switched access charges that local exchange carriers ("LECs") collect from interexchange carriers ("IXCs") for IXCs' use of LEC's access services. In the lawsuits, three IXCs, Sprint Communications Company L.P. ("Sprint"), affiliates of Verizon Communications Inc. ("Verizon") and affiliates of Level 3 Communications LLC ("Level 3"), assert that federal and state laws bar LECs from collecting access charges when IXCs exchange certain types of calls between mobile and wireline devices that are routed through an IXC. Some of these IXCs have asserted claims seeking refunds of payments for access charges previously paid and relief from future access charges. In addition, Level 3 has ceased paying switched access charges on these calls.
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In November 2015, the federal court agreed with the LECs and rejected the IXCs' contention that federal law prohibits these particular access charges, and also allowed the IXCs to refile state-law claims. Since then, many of the LECs and IXCs have filed revised pleadings and additional motions, which remain pending. Separately, some of the defendants, including us, have petitioned the Federal Communications Commission to address these issues on an industry-wide basis.
The outcome of these disputes and lawsuits, as well as any related regulatory proceedings that could ensue, are currently not predictable. If we are required to stop assessing these charges or to pay refunds of any such charges, our financial results could be negatively affected.
Other Proceedings and Disputes
From time to time, we are involved in other proceedings incidental to our business, including patent infringement allegations, administrative hearings of state public utility commissions relating primarily to our rates or services, actions relating to employee claims, various tax issues, environmental law issues, grievance hearings before labor regulatory agencies and miscellaneous third party tort actions.
We are currently defending several patent infringement lawsuits asserted against us by non-practicing entities, many of whom are seeking substantial recoveries. These cases have progressed to various stages and one or more may go to trial in the coming 24 months if they are not otherwise resolved. Where applicable, we are seeking full or partial indemnification from our vendors and suppliers. As with all litigation, we are vigorously defending these actions and, as a matter of course, are prepared to litigate these matters to judgment, as well as to evaluate and consider all reasonable settlement opportunities.
We are subject to various federal, state and local environmental protection and health and safety laws. From time to time, we are subject to judicial and administrative proceedings brought by various governmental authorities under these laws. Several such proceedings are currently pending, but none is reasonably expected to exceed $100,000 in fines and penalties.
The outcome of these other proceedings is not predictable. However, based on current circumstances, we do not believe that the ultimate resolution of these other proceedings, after considering available defenses and any insurance coverage or indemnification rights, will have a material adverse effect on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
CenturyLink, Inc. and its affiliates are involved in several legal proceedings to which we are not a party that, if resolved against them, could have a material adverse effect on their business and financial condition. As an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of CenturyLink, Inc., our business and financial condition could be similarly affected. You can find descriptions of these legal proceedings in CenturyLink, Inc.'s quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Because we are not a party to any of the matters, we have not accrued any liabilities for the matters.
(6) Dividends
During the six months ended June 30, 2016, we declared and paid dividends of $700 million to our direct parent company, Qwest Services Corporation. Dividends paid are reflected on our consolidated statements of cash flows as financing activities.
(7) Other Financial Information
Other Current Assets
| As of June 30, 2016 | As of December 31, 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Prepaid expenses | $ | 70 | 46 |
| Other | 78 | 77 |
| Total other current assets | $ | 148 | 123 |

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Selected Current Liabilities
| As of June 30, 2016 | As of December 31, 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Accounts payable | $ | 350 | 369 |

Included in accounts payable at both June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, was $29 million associated with capital expenditures.
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ITEM 2. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this report to "QC" refer to Qwest Corporation, and references to "Qwest," "we," "us" and "our" refer to Qwest Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries.
All references to "Notes" in this Item 2 of Part I refer to the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in Item 1 of Part I of this report.
Certain statements in this report constitute forward-looking statements. See the last paragraph of this Item 2 of Part I and "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of Part II of this report for a discussion of certain factors that could cause our actual results to differ from our anticipated results or otherwise impact our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity or prospects.
Overview
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations ("MD&A") included herein should be read in conjunction with MD&A and the other information included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and with the consolidated financial statements and related notes in Item 1 of Part I of this report. The results of operations for the first six months of the year are not necessarily indicative of the results of operations that might be expected for the entire year.
We are an integrated communications company engaged primarily in providing an array of services to our residential and business customers. Our communications services include local voice, broadband, private line (including special access), network access, Ethernet, information technology, video and other ancillary services. In certain local and regional markets, we also provide local access and fiber transport services to competitive local exchange carriers. We strive to maintain our customer relationships by, among other things, bundling our service offerings to provide our customers with a complete offering of integrated communications services.
We generate the majority of our total consolidated operating revenues from services provided in the 14-state region of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. We refer to this region as our local service area.
Our ultimate parent company, CenturyLink, Inc. ("CenturyLink"), has cash management arrangements between certain of its subsidiaries that include lines of credit, affiliate obligations, capital contributions and dividends. As part of these cash management arrangements, affiliates provide lines of credit to certain other affiliates. Amounts outstanding under these lines of credit and intercompany obligations vary from time to time. Under these arrangements, the majority of our cash balance is advanced on a daily basis to CenturyLink. From time to time we may declare and pay dividends to Qwest Services Corporation ("QSC"), our direct parent, using cash owed to us under these advances, which has the net effect of reducing the amount of these advances. We report the balance of these transfers on our consolidated balance sheet as advances to affiliates.
For the reasons noted in Note 4—Products and Services Revenues to our consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of Part I of this report, we believe we have one reportable segment.
From time to time, we may change the categorization of our products and services. During the second quarter of 2016, we determined that because of declines due to customer migration to other strategic products and services, certain of our services, specifically our private line (including special access) services, are now more closely aligned with our legacy services than with our strategic services. As described in greater detail in Note 4—Products and Services Revenues, these operating revenues are now reflected as legacy services.
We now categorize our products, services and revenues among the following three categories:
| • | Strategic services, which include primarily broadband, Ethernet, video and other ancillary services; |

| • | Legacy services, which include primarily local voice, private line (including special access), Integrated Services Digital Network ("ISDN") (which use regular telephone lines to support voice, video and data applications), switched access, traditional wide area network ("WAN") (which allow a local communications network to link to networks in remote locations) and other ancillary services; and |

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| • | Affiliates and other services, which consist primarily of Connect America Fund ("CAF") support payments, Universal Service Fund ("USF") support payments, USF surcharges and services we provide to our affiliates. We receive federal support payments from both CAF Phase 1 and CAF Phase 2 programs, and support payments from both federal and state USF programs. These support payments are government subsidies designed to reimburse us for various costs related to certain telecommunications services, including the costs of deploying, maintaining and operating voice and broadband infrastructure in high-cost rural areas where we are not able to fully recover our costs from our customers. USF surcharges are the amounts we collect based on specific items we list on our customers' invoices to fund the Federal Communications Commission's ("FCC") universal service programs. We provide to our affiliates, telecommunication services that we also provide to external customers. In addition, we provide to our affiliates, computer system development and support services, network support and technical services. |

At June 30, 2016, we operated approximately 6.8 million access lines and served approximately 3.5 million broadband subscribers. Our methodology for counting access lines and broadband subscribers, which is described further in the operational metrics table below under "Results of Operations", may not be comparable to those of other companies.
The following analysis is organized to provide the information we believe will be useful for understanding material trends affecting our business.
Business Trends
Our financial results were impacted by several significant trends, which are described below. We expect that these trends will continue to affect our results of operations, cash flows or financial position.
| • | Strategic services. We continue to see shifts in the makeup of our total revenues as customers move to lower margin strategic services, such as broadband and video services, from higher margin legacy services. Revenues from our strategic services represented 30% and 29% of our total revenues for both the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. We continue to experienced price compression due to competition, which negatively impacted the growth of our strategic revenues. We continue to focus on increasing subscribers of our broadband services, particularly among consumer and small business customers. We believe that continually increasing the scope and connection speeds of our broadband services is important to remaining competitive in our industry. As a result, we continue to invest in our broadband network, which allows for the delivery of higher speed broadband services to a greater number of customers. We compete in a maturing broadband market in which most customers already have broadband services and growth rates in new subscribers have slowed. Moreover, as described further in "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of Part II of this report, demand for our broadband services could be adversely affected by competitors continuing to provide services at higher broadband speeds than ours or expanding their advanced wireless data service offerings. Our Ethernet-based services in the wholesale market face competition from cable companies and competitive fiber-based telecommunications providers; |

| • | Legacy services. Revenues from our legacy services represented 37% and 41% of our total revenues for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016 and 2015, respectively. We expect these percentages to continue to decline. Our legacy services revenues have been, and we expect they will continue to be adversely affected by access line losses and price compression. Intense competition and product substitution continue to drive our access line losses. For example, many consumers are replacing traditional voice telecommunications service with substitute services, including (i) cable and wireless voice services and (ii) electronic mail, texting and social networking services. We expect that these factors will continue to negatively impact our business. As a result of the expected loss of revenue associated with access lines, we continue to offer our customers service bundling and other product promotions to help mitigate this trend, as described below. Demand for our private line services (including special access) continues to decline due to customers' optimization of their networks, industry consolidation and technological migration to higher-speed services; |

| • | Service bundling and product promotions. We offer our customers the ability to bundle multiple products and services. These customers can bundle local services with other services such as broadband and video. While we believe our bundled service offerings can help retain customers, they also tend to lower our profit margins due to the related discounts; and |

| • | Operating efficiencies. We continue to evaluate our operating structure and focus. This involves balancing our workforce in response to our workload requirements, productivity improvements and changes in industry, competitive, technological and regulatory conditions. |

While these trends are important to understanding and evaluating our financial results, the other transactions, events, uncertainties and trends discussed in "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of Part II of this report may also materially impact our business operations and financial results.
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Results of Operations
| Three Months Ended June 30, | Six Months Ended June 30, |
| 2016 | 2015 | 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Operating revenues | $ | 2,223 | 2,222 | 4,476 | 4,439 |
| Operating expenses | 1,621 | 1,701 | 3,249 | 3,373 |
| Operating income | 602 | 521 | 1,227 | 1,066 |
| Other expense, net | (135 | ) | (131 | ) | (268 | ) | (262 | ) |
| Income tax expense | 179 | 152 | 367 | 319 |
| Net income | $ | 288 | 238 | 592 | 485 |

| As of June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (in thousands) |
| Operational metrics: |
| Total access lines (1) | 6,808 | 7,184 | (376 | ) | (5 | )% |
| Total broadband subscribers (1) | 3,516 | 3,556 | (40 | ) | (1 | )% |
| Total employees | 22.9 | 22.5 | 0.4 | 2 | % |

(1) Access lines are lines reaching from the customers' premises to a connection with the public network and broadband subscribers are customers that purchase broadband connection service through their existing telephone lines, stand-alone telephone lines, or fiber-optic cables. Our methodology for counting our access lines and broadband subscribers includes only those lines that we use to provide services to external customers and excludes lines used solely by us and our affiliates. It also excludes unbundled loops and includes stand-alone broadband subscribers. We count lines when we install the service.
Operating Revenues
| Three Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Strategic services | $ | 674 | 650 | 24 | 4 | % |
| Legacy services | 814 | 904 | (90 | ) | (10 | )% |
| Affiliates and other services | 735 | 668 | 67 | 10 | % |
| Total operating revenues | $ | 2,223 | 2,222 | 1 | — | % |

| Six Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Strategic services | $ | 1,345 | 1,291 | 54 | 4 | % |
| Legacy services | 1,658 | 1,833 | (175 | ) | (10 | )% |
| Affiliates and other services | 1,473 | 1,315 | 158 | 12 | % |
| Total operating revenues | $ | 4,476 | 4,439 | 37 | 1 | % |

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Strategic Services
Strategic services revenues increased by $24 million, or 4%, and increased by $54 million, or 4%, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, as compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2015. The increase in our strategic services revenues for both periods was primarily due to price increases for broadband services, volume increases in Ethernet services and price increases for other services.
Legacy Services
Legacy services revenues decreased by $90 million, or 10%, and decreased by $175 million, or 10%, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, as compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2015. The decline in our legacy services revenues for both periods was primarily due to lower local voice services revenues due to access line loss and reduced access services usage related to customer migration, competitive pressures and product substitution and to reductions in the volumes of our private line (including special access) services.
Affiliates and Other Services
Affiliates and other services revenues increased by $67 million, or 10%, and increased by $158 million, or 12%, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, as compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2015. The increase in our affiliates and other services revenues for both periods was primarily due to increases in the volume and in the rates we charge for the support services we provided to affiliates and to the additional revenue recorded under the FCC's CAF Phase 2 support program. We recorded $24 million and $48 million more in revenue for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, than for the three and six months ended June 30, 2015, with respect to our 13 CAF Phase 2 states. We received a substantial one-time cumulative catch-up payment related to the first half of 2015 from the FCC in the third quarter of 2015, and, as a result, we do not expect funding from the CAF Phase 2 support program to materially change our other operating revenues for the full year 2016 when compared to the full year 2015.
Operating Expenses
The following tables summarize our consolidated operating expenses:
| Three Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Cost of services and products (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) | $ | 731 | 743 | (12 | ) | (2 | )% |
| Selling, general and administrative | 235 | 256 | (21 | ) | (8 | )% |
| Operating expenses - affiliates | 231 | 238 | (7 | ) | (3 | )% |
| Depreciation and amortization | 424 | 464 | (40 | ) | (9 | )% |
| Total operating expenses | $ | 1,621 | 1,701 | (80 | ) | (5 | )% |

| Six Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Cost of services and products (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) | $ | 1,439 | 1,435 | 4 | — | % |
| Selling, general and administrative | 485 | 526 | (41 | ) | (8 | )% |
| Operating expenses - affiliates | 482 | 486 | (4 | ) | (1 | )% |
| Depreciation and amortization | 843 | 926 | (83 | ) | (9 | )% |
| Total operating expenses | $ | 3,249 | 3,373 | (124 | ) | (4 | )% |

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Cost of Services and Products (exclusive of depreciation and amortization)
Cost of services and products (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) are expenses incurred in providing products and services to our customers. These expenses include: employee-related expenses directly attributable to operating and maintaining our network (such as salaries, wages, benefits and professional fees); facilities expenses (which include third-party telecommunications expenses we incur for using other carriers' networks to provide services to our customers); rents and utilities expenses; equipment sales expenses (such as modem expenses); payments of universal service funds (which are federal and state funds that are established to promote the availability of telecommunications services to all consumers at reasonable and affordable rates, among other things, and to which we are often required to contribute); litigation expenses associated with our operations; and other expenses directly related to our operations.
Cost of services and products (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) decreased by $12 million, or 2%, for the three months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2015. The decrease in our cost of services and products was primarily due to decreases in employee benefits expense, professional fees and contract labor costs, which were partially offset by increases in facility costs and network expense. Cost of services and products (exclusive of depreciation and amortization) increased by $4 million, or less than 1%, for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015. The increase in our cost of services and products was primarily due to increases in facility costs and allocated corporate costs from affiliates, which were substantially offset by decreases in salaries and wages and related employee benefits expense (driven by increases in the amount of labor capitalized and allocated to our affiliates), professional fees and contract labor costs.
Selling, General and Administrative
Selling, general and administrative expenses are expenses incurred in selling products and services to our customers, corporate overhead and other operating expenses. These expenses include: employee-related expenses (such as salaries, wages, internal commissions, benefits and professional fees) directly attributable to selling products or services and employee-related expenses for administrative functions; marketing and advertising; property and other operating taxes and fees; external commissions; litigation expenses associated with general matters; bad debt expense; and other selling, general and administrative expenses.
Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by $21 million, or 8%, for the three months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2015. The decrease in our selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily due to decreases in salaries and wages and related employee benefits expense (driven by increases in the amount of labor capitalized and allocated to our affiliates), contract labor costs and property and other taxes, which were partially offset by an increase in external commissions. Selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by $41 million, or 8%, for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015. The decrease in our selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily due to decreases in salaries and wages and related employee benefits expense (driven by increases in the amount of labor capitalized and allocated to our affiliates), contract labor costs, property and other taxes and regulatory fines of $15 million associated with a 911 system outage in 2015, which were partially offset by an increase in external commissions.
Operating Expenses - Affiliates
Since CenturyLink's acquisition of us, we have incurred affiliates expenses related to our use of telecommunication services, marketing and employee related support services provided by CenturyLink and its subsidiaries.
Operating expenses - affiliates decreased by $7 million, or 3%, for the three months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2015 and decreased by $4 million, or 1%, for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015. The decrease in operating expenses - affiliates for both periods was primarily due to decreases in level of services provided to us by our affiliates.
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Depreciation and Amortization
The following tables provide detail of our depreciation and amortization expense:
| Three Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Depreciation | $ | 230 | 244 | (14 | ) | (6 | )% |
| Amortization | 194 | 220 | (26 | ) | (12 | )% |
| Total depreciation and amortization | $ | 424 | 464 | (40 | ) | (9 | )% |

| Six Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Depreciation | $ | 452 | 484 | (32 | ) | (7 | )% |
| Amortization | 391 | 442 | (51 | ) | (12 | )% |
| Total depreciation and amortization | $ | 843 | 926 | (83 | ) | (9 | )% |

Depreciation expense is impacted by several factors, including changes in our depreciable cost basis, changes in our estimates of the remaining economic life of certain network assets and the addition of new plant. Depreciation expense decreased by $14 million, or 6%, and decreased by $32 million, or 7%, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, as compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2015. The depreciation expense related to our plant for the six months ended June 30, 2016 was lower than the depreciation expense for the six months ended June 30, 2015 due to full depreciation and retirement of certain plant placed in service prior to 2016. This decrease was partially offset by an increase in depreciation expense attributable to new plant placed in service since June 30, 2015.
Amortization expense decreased by $26 million, or 12%, and decreased by $51 million, or 12%, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016, respectively, as compared to the three and six months ended June 30, 2015. The decrease in amortization expense for both periods was primarily due to software becoming fully amortized faster than new software was acquired or developed.
Other Consolidated Results
The following tables summarize our total other expense, net and income tax expense:
| Three Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Interest expense | $ | (120 | ) | (119 | ) | 1 | 1 | % |
| Interest expense - affiliate | (15 | ) | (13 | ) | 2 | 15 | % |
| Other income, net | — | 1 | (1 | ) | 100 | % |
| Total other expense, net | $ | (135 | ) | (131 | ) | 4 | 3 | % |
| Income tax expense | $ | 179 | 152 | 27 | 18 | % |

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| Six Months Ended June 30, | Increase/(Decrease) | % Change |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Interest expense | $ | (241 | ) | (237 | ) | 4 | 2 | % |
| Interest expense - affiliate | (29 | ) | (26 | ) | 3 | 12 | % |
| Other income, net | 2 | 1 | 1 | 100 | % |
| Total other expense, net | $ | (268 | ) | (262 | ) | 6 | 2 | % |
| Income tax expense | $ | 367 | 319 | 48 | 15 | % |

Interest Expense
Interest expense increased by $1 million, or 1%, for the three months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2015 and increased by $4 million, or 2%, for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015. The increase in interest expense for both periods was primarily due to a reduction in the amount of net premium amortization recorded at acquisition primarily due to the retirement of several issuances of debt during the period. See Note 2—Long-Term Debt and Revolving Promissory Note to our consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of Part I of this report and Liquidity and Capital Resources below for additional information about our debt.
Interest Expense - Affiliates, Net
Affiliate interest expense increased by $2 million, or 15%, for the three months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the three months ended June 30, 2015 and increased by $3 million, or 12%, for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015. The increase in affiliate interest expense for both periods was primarily due to the increase in the average amount outstanding on our intercompany revolving indebtedness.
Income Tax Expense
Income tax expense for the three months ended June 30, 2016 was $179 million, or an effective tax rate of 38.3%, compared to $152 million, or an effective tax rate of 39.0%, for the three months ended June 30, 2015. Income tax expense for the six months ended June 30, 2016 was $367 million, or an effective tax rate of 38.3%, compared to $319 million, or an effective tax rate of 39.7%, for the six months ended June 30, 2015. The 2016 rates include the effect of changes in state apportionment factors and research and development credits. The 2015 rates include the effect of regulatory fines associated with a 911 system outage and state tax rate changes.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Overview
We are an indirectly wholly-owned subsidiary of CenturyLink. As such, factors relating to, or affecting, CenturyLink's liquidity and capital resources could have material impacts on us, including impacts on our credit ratings, our access to capital markets and changes in the financial market's perception of us.
CenturyLink has cash management arrangements between certain of its subsidiaries that include lines of credit, affiliate advances and obligations, capital contributions and dividends. As part of these cash management arrangements, affiliates provide lines of credit to certain other affiliates. Amounts outstanding under these lines of credit and intercompany obligations vary from time to time. Under these arrangements, the majority of our cash balance is advanced on a daily basis to CenturyLink. From time to time we may declare and pay dividends to our stockholder, QSC, in excess of our earnings to the extent permitted by applicable law, using cash owed to us under these advances, which has the net effect of reducing the amount of these advances. Our debt covenants do not currently limit the amount of dividends we can pay to QSC. Given our cash management arrangement with our ultimate parent, CenturyLink, and the resulting amounts due to us from CenturyLink, a significant component of our liquidity is dependent upon CenturyLink's ability to repay its obligation to us.
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At June 30, 2016, we had a working capital deficit of $1.005 billion, reflecting current liabilities of $2.656 billion and current assets of $1.651 billion, compared to a working capital deficit of approximately $820 million as of December 31, 2015. We have historically operated with a working capital deficit due to our practice of declaring and paying regular cash dividends to QSC. As long as we continue declaring and paying cash dividends to QSC, it is likely that we will continue to operate with a working capital deficit in the future. We anticipate that our future liquidity needs will be met through (i) our cash provided by our operating activities, (ii) amounts due to us from CenturyLink and (iii) capital contributions, advances or loans from CenturyLink or its affiliates if and to the extent they have available funds or access to available funds that they are willing and able to contribute, advance or loan.
Capital Expenditures
We incur capital expenditures on an ongoing basis in order to enhance and modernize our networks, compete effectively in our markets and expand our service offerings. CenturyLink evaluates capital expenditure projects based on a variety of factors, including expected strategic impacts (such as forecasted impact on revenue growth, productivity, expenses, service levels and customer retention) and the expected return on investment. The amount of CenturyLink’s consolidated capital investment is influenced by, among other things, demand for CenturyLink’s services and products, cash flow generated by operating activities, cash required for other purposes and regulatory considerations (such as our CAF Phase 2 infrastructure buildout requirements discussed below). Based on the type and volume of services we provide, approximately 38% to 43% of CenturyLink’s annual consolidated capital expenditures have been attributed over the last couple of years to us for use in our operations. For more information on CenturyLink’s total capital expenditures, please see its annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC.
Our capital expenditures continue to be focused on our strategic services. For more information on our capital spending, see Item 1of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Debt and Other Financing Arrangements
Subject to market conditions, and to the extent feasible, we expect to continue to issue debt securities from time to time in the future to refinance a substantial portion of our maturing debt. The availability, interest rate and other terms of any new borrowings will depend on the ratings assigned to us by credit rating agencies, among other factors. We have no debt maturities due during the remainder of 2016.
| Agency | Credit Ratings |
| Standard & Poor's | BBB- |
| Moody's Investors Service, Inc. (1) | Ba1 |
| Fitch Ratings | BBB- |

| (1) | On March 15, 2016, Moody's Investors Service, Inc. downgraded CenturyLink's rating from Ba2 to Ba3 and downgraded Qwest Corporation's rating from Baa3 to Ba1. |

Our credit ratings are reviewed and adjusted from time to time by the rating agencies, and downgrades could impact CenturyLink's and our access to debt capital or further raise CenturyLink's and our borrowing costs. Additional downgrades of CenturyLink's senior unsecured debt ratings could, under certain circumstances, incrementally increase the cost of CenturyLink's borrowing under its revolving credit facility, which could indirectly impact us. See "Risk Factors—Risks Affecting our Liquidity and Capital Resources" in Item 1A of Part II of this report.
Term Loan
In 2015, we entered into a term loan in the amount of $100 million with CoBank, ACB. The outstanding unpaid principal amount of this term loan plus any accrued and unpaid interest is due on February 20, 2025. Interest is paid monthly based upon either the London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) or the base rate (as defined in the credit agreement) plus an applicable margin between 1.50% to 2.50% per annum for LIBOR loans and 0.50% to 1.50% per annum for base rate loans depending on our then current senior unsecured long-term debt rating. As of June 30, 2016, the outstanding principal balance on this term loan was $100 million.
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Revolving Promissory Note
We are currently indebted to an affiliate of CenturyLink under a revolving promissory note that provides us with a funding commitment of up to $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount through June 30, 2022, of which $884 million was outstanding as of June 30, 2016. The revolving promissory note is due on demand and ranks equally to our outstanding Senior Notes. Interest is accrued on the outstanding balance using a weighted average per annum interest rate of CenturyLink's outstanding borrowings for the interest period. As of June 30, 2016, the weighted average interest rate was 6.795%. As of June 30, 2016 and December 31, 2015, this revolving promissory note is reflected on our consolidated balance sheets as a current liability under note payable - affiliate. As of June 30, 2016, $5 million of accrued interest is reflected in other current liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet.
Dividends
We periodically pay dividends to our direct parent company. See Note 6—Dividends and the discussion above under the heading "Overview".
Pension and Post-retirement Benefit Obligations
CenturyLink is subject to material obligations under its existing defined benefit pension plans and post-retirement benefit plans. At December 31, 2015, the accounting unfunded status of CenturyLink's qualified and non-qualified defined benefit pension plans and post-retirement benefit plans was $2.277 billion and $3.374 billion, respectively. For additional information about CenturyLink's pension and post-retirement benefit arrangements, see "Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates—Pensions and Post-Retirement Benefits" in Item 7 of CenturyLink's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and see Note 7—Employee Benefits to the consolidated financial statements in Item 8 of Part II of the same report.
A substantial portion of our active and retired employees participate in CenturyLink's qualified Combined Pension Plan and post-retirement benefit plans. On December 31, 2014, the Qwest Communications International Inc. ("QCII") pension plan and a pension plan of an affiliate were merged into the CenturyLink Retirement Plan, which was renamed the CenturyLink Combined Pension Plan. Our contributions to the trust are not segregated or restricted to pay amounts due to our employees and may be used to provide benefits to other employees of our affiliates. Prior to the pension plan merger, the above-noted employees participated in the QCII pension plan.
The affiliate obligations, net in current and noncurrent liabilities on our consolidated balance sheets represents the cumulative allocation of expense, net of payments, associated with QCII's pension plans and post-retirement benefits plans prior to the plan mergers. In 2015, we agreed to a plan to settle the outstanding pension and post-retirement affiliate obligations, net balance with QCII over a 30 year term. Payments will be made on a monthly basis. For the six months ended June 30, 2016, we made a settlement payment of $49 million to QCII on our affiliate obligations, net balance. Changes in the affiliate obligations, net are reflected in operating activities on our consolidated statements of cash flows. For the year ending December 31, 2016, we expect to make a settlement payment of $97 million to QCII on our affiliate obligations, net balance.
For 2016, CenturyLink's estimated annual long-term rate of return is 7.0% for both the pension plan trust assets and post-retirement plans trust assets, based on the assets currently held. However, actual returns could be substantially different.
For additional information, see “Risk Factors—Risks Affecting Our Liquidity and Capital Resources—Adverse changes in the value of assets or obligations associated with CenturyLink’s qualified pension plan could negatively impact CenturyLink’s liquidity, which may in turn affect our business and liquidity” in Item 1A of Part II of this report.
Connect America Fund
In 2015, CenturyLink accepted CAF funding from the FCC of approximately $500 million per year for six years to fund the deployment of voice and broadband capable infrastructure for approximately 1.2 million rural households and businesses in 33 states under the CAF Phase 2 support program. Of these amounts, approximately $150 million per year is attributable to our service area, to provide service to approximately 0.3 million rural households and businesses in 13 states. The funding from the CAF Phase 2 support program is expected to substantially supplant the funding we previously received from the interstate USF program that we previously utilized to support voice services in high-cost rural markets in these 13 states. In late 2015, we began receiving these payments from the FCC under the new CAF Phase 2 support program, which included monthly support payments at a higher rate than under the interstate USF support program. We received a substantial one-time cumulative catch-up payment from the FCC in the third quarter of 2015, and, as a result, we do not expect our funding from the CAF Phase 2 support program to materially change our operating revenues for the full year 2016 when compared to the full year 2015.
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As a result of accepting CAF Phase 2 support payments for 13 states, we will be obligated to make substantial capital expenditures to build infrastructure over the next several years. See "Capital Expenditures" above.
For additional information on the FCC's CAF order and the USF program, see "Business—Regulation" in Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 and see "Risk Factors—Risks Affecting our Liquidity and Capital Resources" in Item 1A of Part II of this report.
In 2013, under the second round of the first phase of the CAF program, CenturyLink received $40 million in funding, $15 million attributed to our service areas, for deployment of broadband services in rural areas. For various reasons, we failed to meet certain broadband deployment requirements by specified deadlines, but we are currently developing alternate solutions, which may satisfy some or all of the requirements. If the FCC does not recognize our alternate deployment plans or grant us an extension of time to fulfill the deployment requirements, we anticipate that we will be requested to refund a substantial portion of the $15 million in funding we received. As of June 30, 2016, we have included approximately $8 million of CAF 1 Round 2 funding in other current liabilities and the remaining approximately $7 million of funding in other noncurrent liabilities on our consolidated balance sheet.
Future Contractual Obligations
For information regarding our estimated future contractual obligations, see the MD&A discussion included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Historical Information
| Six Months Ended June 30, | Increase / (Decrease) |
| 2016 | 2015 |
| (Dollars in millions) |
| Cash Flows Provided By (Used In) |
| Net cash provided by operating activities | $ | 1,284 | 1,254 | 30 |
| Net cash used in investing activities | (569 | ) | (947 | ) | (378 | ) |
| Net cash used in financing activities | (714 | ) | (307 | ) | 407 |

Net cash provided by operating activities increased by $30 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015 primarily due to an increase in net income (which was directly impacted by the cash received from the CAF Phase 2 support program, which was $50 million greater than the cash we received in the first six months of 2015) adjusted for non-cash items, which was partially offset by negative variances in the changes in accounts receivable, accounts payable and affiliate obligations, net. For additional information about our operating results, see "Results of Operations" above.
Net cash used in investing activities decreased by $378 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015 primarily due to a positive variance in the change in the amount of funds advanced to our affiliates.
Net cash used in financing activities increased by $407 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016 as compared to the six months ended June 30, 2015 primarily due to an increase in the amount of dividends paid to our direct parent company. For additional information regarding our financing activities, see Note 2—Long-Term Debt and Revolving Promissory Note to our consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of this report.
On May 2, 2016, QC paid at maturity the $235 million principal amount and accrued and unpaid interest due under its 8.375% Notes.
In January 2016, QC issued $235 million aggregate principal amount of 7% Notes due 2056, in exchange for net proceeds, after deducting underwriting discounts and other expenses, of approximately $227 million. For additional information on the terms of QC's 7% Notes due in 2056, see Note 2—Long-Term Debt and Revolving Promissory Note to our consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of this report.
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Other Matters
In February 2015, the FCC adopted new regulations that regulate broadband services as a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act. In light of pending litigation, we believe it is premature for us to determine the ultimate impact of the new regulations on our operations; however, we currently expect that they will negatively impact our operations. For additional information, see “Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Legal and Regulatory Matters” in Item 1A of Part II of this report.
CenturyLink and its affiliates are involved in several legal proceedings to which we are not a party that, if resolved against them, could have a material adverse effect on their business and financial condition. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of CenturyLink, our business and financial condition could be similarly affected. You can find descriptions of these legal proceedings in CenturyLink's quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Because we are not a party to any of the matters, we have not accrued any liabilities for these matters as of June 30, 2016.
Market Risk
We are exposed to market risk from changes in interest rates on our variable rate long-term debt obligations and revolving promissory note. We seek to maintain a favorable mix of fixed and variable rate debt in an effort to limit interest costs and cash flow volatility resulting from changes in rates.
Management periodically reviews our exposure to interest rate fluctuations and periodically implements strategies to manage the exposure. From time to time, we have used derivative instruments to (i) lock-in or swap our exposure to changing or variable interest rates for fixed interest rates or (ii) to swap obligations to pay fixed interest rates for variable interest rates. As of June 30, 2016, we had no such instruments outstanding. We have established policies and procedures for risk assessment and the approval, reporting and monitoring of derivative instrument activities. We do not hold or issue derivative financial instruments for trading or speculative purposes.
We do not believe that there were any material changes to market risks arising from changes in interest rates for the six months ended June 30, 2016, when compared to the disclosures provided in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Certain shortcomings are inherent in the method of analysis presented in the computation of exposures to market risks. Actual values may differ materially from those disclosed by us from time to time if market conditions vary from the assumptions used in the analyses performed. These analyses only incorporate the risk exposures that existed at June 30, 2016.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We have no special purpose or limited purpose entities that provide off-balance sheet financing, liquidity, or market or credit risk support and we do not engage in leasing, hedging or other similar activities that expose us to any significant liabilities that are not (i) reflected on the face of the consolidated financial statements, (ii) disclosed in Note 15—Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements in Item 8 of Part II of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015 or (iii) discussed under the heading "Market Risk" above.
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Other Information
CenturyLink's and our website is www.centurylink.com. We routinely post important investor information in the "Investor Relations" section of our website at ir.centurylink.com. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not part of this quarterly report. You may obtain free electronic copies of our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports in the "Investor Relations" section of our website (ir.centurylink.com) under the heading "SEC Filings." These reports are available on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with the SEC.
In addition to historical information, this quarterly report includes certain forward-looking statements that are based upon our judgment and assumptions as of the date of this report concerning future developments and events, many of which are beyond our control. These forward-looking statements, and the assumptions upon which they are based, are not guarantees of future results, are inherently speculative and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those anticipated, estimated, projected or implied by us in those statements if one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect. Factors that could affect actual results include but are not limited to: the effects of competition from a wide variety of competitive providers, including lower demand for our legacy offerings; the effects of new, emerging or competing technologies, including those that could make our products less desirable or obsolete; the effects of ongoing changes in the regulation of the communications industry, including the outcome of regulatory or judicial proceedings relating to intercarrier compensation, interconnection obligations, access charges, universal service, broadband deployment, data protection and net neutrality; our ability to effectively adjust to changes in the communications industry, and changes in the composition of our markets and product mix; possible changes in the demand for, or pricing of, our products and services, including our ability to effectively respond to increased demand for high-speed broadband service; our ability to successfully maintain the quality and profitability of our existing product and service offerings and to introduce new offerings on a timely and cost-effective basis; the adverse impact on our business and network from possible equipment failures, service outages, security breaches or similar events impacting our network; our ability to generate cash flows sufficient to fund our financial commitments and objectives, including our capital expenditures, operating costs, dividends, pension contributions and debt payments; changes in our operating plans, corporate strategies, dividend payment plans or other capital allocation plans, whether based upon changes in our cash flows, cash requirements, financial performance, financial position, or otherwise; our ability to effectively retain and hire key personnel and to successfully negotiate collective bargaining agreements on reasonable terms without work stoppages; increases in the costs of CenturyLink's pension, health, post-employment or other benefits, including those caused by changes in markets, interest rates, mortality rates, demographics or regulations, which may in turn affect our business and liquidity; adverse changes in our access to credit markets on favorable terms, whether caused by changes in our financial position, lower debt credit ratings, unstable markets or otherwise; our ability to maintain favorable relations with our key business partners, suppliers, vendors, landlords and financial institutions; our ability to effectively manage our network buildout project and other expansion opportunities; our ability to collect our receivables from financially troubled customers; any adverse developments in legal or regulatory proceedings involving us or our affiliates (including CenturyLink); changes in tax, communications, pension, healthcare or other laws or regulations, in governmental support programs, or in general government funding levels; the effects of changes in accounting policies or practices, including potential future impairment charges; the effects of terrorism, adverse weather or other natural or man-made disasters; the effects of more general factors such as changes in interest rates, in operating costs, in general market, labor, economic or geo-political conditions, or in public policy; and other risks referenced in Item 1A or elsewhere in this Quarterly Report or other of our filings with the SEC. You should be aware that new factors may emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to identify all such factors nor can we predict the impact of each such factor on the business or the extent to which any one or more factors may cause actual results to differ from those reflected in any forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, we caution investors not to unduly rely upon our forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments, changed circumstances, or otherwise. Furthermore, any information about our intentions contained in any of our forward-looking statements reflects our intentions as of the date of this report, and is based upon, among other things, existing regulatory, technological, industry, competitive, economic and market conditions, and our assumptions as of such date. We may change our intentions, strategies or plans at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in our assumptions or otherwise.
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ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
We have omitted this information pursuant to General Instruction H(2).
ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
The Company maintains disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”)) designed to provide reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. These include controls and procedures designed to ensure that this information is accumulated and communicated to the Company’s management, including its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer, Glen F. Post, III, and our Chief Financial Officer, R. Stewart Ewing, Jr., evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as of June 30, 2016. Based on this evaluation, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of June 30, 2016, in providing reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed by us in this report was accumulated and communicated in the manner provided above.
The effectiveness of our or any system of disclosure controls and procedures is subject to certain limitations, including the exercise of judgment in designing, implementing and evaluating the controls and procedures, the assumptions used in identifying the likelihood of future events and the inability to eliminate misconduct completely. As a result, there can be no assurance that our disclosure controls and procedures will detect all errors or fraud. By their nature, our or any system of disclosure controls and procedures can provide only reasonable assurance regarding management's control objectives.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the second quarter of 2016 that materially affected, or that we believe are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
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PART II—OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
The information contained in Note 5—Commitments and Contingencies included in Item 1 of Part I of this report is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
The following discussion of “risk factors” identifies the most significant risks or uncertainties that could (i) materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity or prospects or (ii) cause our actual results to differ materially from our anticipated results or other expectations. You should carefully consider these factors, in addition to the other information set forth in this report and our subsequent filings with the SEC, when evaluating our business and whether to purchase, sell or hold our securities. Please note that the following discussion is not intended to comprehensively list all risks or uncertainties faced by us. Our operations or actual results could also be similarly impacted by additional risks and uncertainties that are not currently known to us, that we currently deem to be immaterial, that arise in the future or that are not specific to us, such as general economic conditions.
Risks Affecting Our Business
We may not be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors.
Each of our offerings to our residential and business customers face increasingly intense competition from a variety of sources under evolving market conditions. We expect these trends will continue. In addition to competition from larger national telecommunications providers, we are facing increasing competition from several other sources, including cable and satellite companies, wireless providers, technology companies, broadband providers, device providers, resellers, sales agents and facilities-based providers using their own networks as well as those leasing parts of our network. In particular, (i) intense competition from wireless and other communications providers has led to a long-term systemic decline in the number of our customers for wireline voice services, (ii) strong competition from cable companies and others has impacted the growth of our broadband operations and (iii) aggressive competition from a wide range of technology companies and other market entrants has limited the prospects for our cloud computing operations. For more detailed information, see "Competition" under Item 1 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Some of our current and potential competitors (i) offer products or services that are substitutes for our wireline voice services, including wireless voice and non-voice communication services, (ii) offer a more comprehensive range of communications products and services, (iii) offer products or services with features that we cannot readily match in some or all of our markets, including faster average broadband transmission speeds and greater content, (iv) offer shorter installation intervals, allowing customers to begin receiving services sooner after ordering, (v) have market presence, engineering and technical capabilities, and financial and other resources greater than ours, (vi) have larger or more diverse networks with greater transmission capacity or other advantages, (vii) conduct operations or raise capital at a lower cost than us, (viii) are subject to less regulation, which we believe enables such competitors to operate more flexibly than us with respect to certain offerings, (ix) offer services nationally or internationally to a larger geographic area or larger base of customers, (x) have substantially stronger brand names, which may provide them with greater pricing power than ours, or (xi) have larger operations than ours, which may enable them to offer higher compensation packages in connection with recruiting and retaining top technological, managerial and operational talent. Consequently, these competitors may be better equipped to provide more attractive offerings, to charge lower prices for their products and services, to develop and expand their communications and network infrastructure more quickly, to adapt more swiftly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements, to devote greater resources to the marketing and sale of their products and services, to provide more comprehensive customer service, to provide greater resources to research and development initiatives and to take advantage of acquisition or other opportunities more readily. In the past, several of our competitors and their operations have grown through acquisitions and aggressive product development. The continued growth of our competitors could further enhance their competitive positions.
Competition could adversely impact us in several ways, including (i) the loss of customers and market share, (ii) the possibility of customers reducing their usage of our services or shifting to less profitable services, (iii) reduced traffic on our networks, (iv) our need to expend substantial time or money on new capital improvement projects, (v) our need to lower prices or increase marketing expenses to remain competitive and (vi) our inability to diversify by successfully offering new products or services.
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We are continually taking steps to respond to these competitive pressures, but these efforts may not be successful. Our operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected if these initiatives are unsuccessful or insufficient and if we otherwise are unable to sufficiently stem our continuing access line losses and our legacy revenue declines. If this occurred, our ability to pay our debt and other obligations and to re-invest in the business would also be adversely affected.
Rapid technological changes could significantly impact our competitive and financial position.
The communications industry has been and continues to be impacted by significant technological changes, which in general are enhancing non-voice communications and enabling a broader array of companies to offer services competitive with ours. Many of those technological changes are (i) displacing or reducing demand for our wireline voice services, (ii) enabling the development of competitive products or services, or (iii) enabling our current customers to reduce or bypass use of our networks. Rapid changes in technology are increasing the competitiveness of the information technology services industry. In addition, demand for our broadband services has been constrained by certain technologies permitting cable companies and other competitors to deliver faster average broadband transmission speeds than ours. Demand for our broadband services could be further reduced by advanced wireless data transmission technologies being deployed by wireless providers, including "long-term evolution" or "LTE" technologies, especially if these wireless providers continue to increase their broadband transmission speed and decrease their service rates. To enhance the competitiveness of our broadband services, we may be required to expend additional capital to augment the capabilities of our copper-based services or to install more fiber optic cable.
We may not be able to accurately predict or respond to changes in technology or industry standards, or to the introduction of newly-offered services. Any of these developments could make some or all of our offerings less desirable or even obsolete. These developments could also require us to (i) expend capital or other resources in excess of currently contemplated levels, (ii) forego the development or provision of products or services that others can provide more efficiently, or (iii) make other changes to our operating plans, corporate strategies or capital allocation plans, any of which could be contrary to the expectations of our security holders or could adversely impact our operations. If we are not able to develop new products and services to keep pace with technological advances, or if those products and services are not widely accepted by customers, our ability to compete could be adversely affected and our market share could decline. Any inability to effectively respond to technological changes could also adversely affect our operating results and financial condition, as well as our ability to service debt and fund other commitments or initiatives.
Even if we succeed in adapting to changes in technology or industry standards by developing new products or services, there is no assurance that the new products or services would have a positive impact on our profit margins or financial performance.
In addition to introducing new technologies and offerings, we may need, from time to time, to phase out outdated and unprofitable technologies and services. If we are unable to do so, on a cost-effective basis, we could experience reduced profits.
For additional information on the risks of increased expenditures, see "Risk Factors—Risks Affecting our Liquidity and Capital Resources—Our business requires us to incur substantial capital and operating expenses, which reduces our available free cash flow."
Our legacy services continue to experience declining revenues, and our efforts to offset these declines may not be successful.
Primarily as a result of the competitive and technological changes discussed above, we have experienced a prolonged systemic decline in our access lines and network access revenues. We have also experienced a decline in our private line revenues due to our customers' optimization of their networks, industry consolidation, price compression and technological migration to higher-speed services.
We have taken a variety of steps to counter these declines in our legacy services revenues, including:
| • | an increased focus on selling a broader range of higher-growth strategic services, which are described in detail elsewhere in this report; |

| • | an increased focus on serving a broader range of business, governmental and wholesale customers; and |

| • | greater use of service bundles. |

However, for the reasons described elsewhere in this report, most of our strategic services generate lower profit margins than our legacy services, and some can be expected to experience slowing growth as increasing numbers of our existing or potential customers subscribe to our newer strategic product and service offerings. Moreover, we cannot assure you that the revenues generated from our new offerings will offset revenue losses associated with our legacy services. In addition, our reliance on third parties to provide certain of these strategic services could constrain our flexibility, as described further below.
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Our ability to successfully introduce new product or service offerings on a timely and cost-effective basis could be constrained by a range of factors, including network limitations, limited capital, an inability to attract key personnel with the necessary skills, intellectual property constraints, testing delays, or an inability to act as quickly as smaller, more nimble start-up competitors. Similarly, our ability to grow through acquisitions could be limited by several factors, including our leverage and inability to identify attractively-priced target companies. For these reasons, we cannot assure you that our new product or service offerings will be as successful as anticipated, or that we will be able to continue to grow through acquisitions.
We may not be able to successfully adjust to changes in our industry, our markets and our product mix.
Ongoing changes in the communications industry have fundamentally changed consumers’ communications expectations and requirements. In response to these changes, we have substantially altered our product and service offerings through acquisitions and internal product development. Many of these changes have placed a higher premium on sales, marketing and product development functions, and necessitated ongoing changes in our processes and operating protocols, as well as periodic reorganizations of our sales and leadership teams. In addition, we now offer a more complex range of products and services, operate larger and more complex networks and serve a much larger and more diverse set of customers. Consequently, we now face greater challenges in effectively managing and administering our operations and allocating capital and other resources to our various offerings. For all these reasons, we cannot assure you that our efforts to adjust to these changes will be timely or successful.
We could be harmed by security breaches, damages or other significant disruptions or failures of our networks, information technology infrastructure or related systems, or of those we operate for certain of our customers.
We are materially reliant upon our networks, information technology infrastructure and related technology systems (including our billing and provisioning systems) to provide products and services to our customers and to manage our operations and affairs. We face the risk, as does any company, of a security breach or significant disruption of our information technology infrastructure and related systems. As a communications company that transmits large amounts of sensitive and proprietary information over communications networks, we face an added risk that a security breach or other significant disruption of our public networks or information technology infrastructure and related systems that we develop, install, operate and maintain for certain of our business customers (which includes our wholesale and governmental customers) could lead to material interruptions or curtailments of service. Moreover, in connection with processing and storing confidential customer data, we face a heightened risk that a security breach or disruption could result in unauthorized access to our customers' proprietary information on our public networks or internal systems or the systems that we operate and maintain for certain of our customers.
We make significant efforts to maintain the security and integrity of information and systems under our control, and maintain contingency plans in the event of security breaches or other system disruptions. Nonetheless, we cannot assure you that our security efforts and measures will prevent unauthorized access to our systems, loss or destruction of data (including confidential customer information), account takeovers, unavailability of service, computer viruses, malware, distributed denial-of-service attacks, or other forms of cyber-attacks or similar events. These threats may derive from human error, hardware or software vulnerabilities, fraud, malice or sabotage on the part of employees, third parties or other nations, or could result from aging equipment or other accidental technological failure. These threats may also arise from failure or breaches of systems owned, operated or controlled by other unaffiliated operators to the extent we rely on such other operations to deliver services to our customers.
Similar to other large telecommunications companies, we are a constant target of cyber-attacks of varying degrees. Although some of these attacks have resulted in security breaches, to date, none of these breaches have resulted in a material adverse effect on our operating results or financial condition. You should be aware, however, that defenses against cyber-attacks currently available to U.S. companies are unlikely to prevent intrusions by a highly-determined, highly-sophisticated hacker. Consequently, you should assume that we will be unable to implement security barriers or other preventative measures that repel all future cyber-attacks. Any such future security breaches or disruptions could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition, especially in light of the growing frequency, scope and well-documented sophistication of cyber-attacks and intrusions.
Although CenturyLink maintains insurance coverage that may, subject to policy terms and conditions (including self-insured deductibles, coverage restrictions and monetary coverage caps), cover certain aspects of our cyber risks, such insurance coverage may be unavailable or insufficient to cover our losses.
Additional risks to our network, infrastructure and related systems include:
| • | power losses or physical damage, whether caused by fire, adverse weather conditions, terrorism, sabotage, vandalism or otherwise; |

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| • | capacity or system configuration limitations, including those resulting from changes in our customer's usage patterns, the introduction of new technologies or products, or incompatibilities between our newer and older systems; |

| • | theft or failure of our equipment; |

| • | software or hardware obsolescence, defects or malfunctions; |

| • | deficiencies in our processes or controls; |

| • | programming, processing and other human error; and |

| • | service failures of our third-party vendors and other disruptions that are beyond our control. |

Due to these factors, from time to time in the ordinary course of our business we experience short disruptions in our service, and could experience more significant disruptions in the future.
Disruptions, security breaches and other significant failures of the above-described networks and systems could:
| • | disrupt the proper functioning of these networks and systems, which could in turn disrupt (i) our operations or (ii) the operations of certain of our customers who rely upon us to provide services critical to their operations; |

| • | require significant management attention or financial resources to remedy the damages that result or to change our systems, including expenses to repair systems, add new personnel or develop additional protective systems; |

| • | result in the unauthorized access to, and destruction, loss, theft, misappropriation or release of proprietary, confidential, sensitive, classified or otherwise valuable information of ours, our customers or our customers' end users, including trade secrets, which others could use for competitive, disruptive, destructive or otherwise harmful purposes and outcomes; |

| • | require us to notify customers, regulatory agencies or the public of data breaches; |

| • | require us to provide credits for future service under certain service level commitments we have provided contractually to our customers or to offer expensive incentives to retain customers; |

| • | subject us to claims for damages, fines, penalties, termination or other remedies under our customer contracts or service standards set by state regulatory commissions, which in certain cases could exceed our insurance coverage; or |

| • | result in a loss of business, damage our reputation among our customers and the public generally, subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny or expose us to prolonged litigation. |

We could experience difficulties in expanding and updating our technical infrastructure.
Our ability to expand and update our systems and information technology infrastructure in response to our growth and changing business needs is important to our ability to maintain and develop attractive product and service offerings. As discussed further under “Business—Network Architecture” in Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, we are currently undertaking several complex, costly and time-consuming projects to simplify and modernize our network, which combines our legacy network and CenturyLink's networks. Unanticipated delays in the completion of these projects may lead to increased project costs or operational inefficiencies. In addition, there may be issues related to our expanded or updated infrastructure that are not identified by our testing processes, and which may only become evident after we have started to fully utilize the redesigned systems. Our failure to modernize and upgrade our technology infrastructure could have adverse consequences, including the delayed implementation of new service offerings, decreased competitiveness of existing service offerings, network instabilities, increased operating or acquisition integration costs, service or billing interruptions, and the diversion of development resources.
Any or all of the foregoing developments could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
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If we fail to hire and retain qualified executives, managers and employees, our operating results could be harmed.
Our future success depends on our ability to identify, hire, train and retain executives, managers and employees with technological, engineering, product development, operational, provisioning, marketing, sales, administrative and managerial skills. There is a shortage of qualified personnel in several of these fields nationally and in our headquarters city of Monroe, Louisiana, in particular. We compete with several other companies for this limited pool of potential employees. As our industry increasingly becomes more competitive, it could become especially difficult to attract and retain top personnel with skills in high demand. In addition, subject to limited exceptions, none of our executives or domestic employees have long-term employment agreements. For all these reasons, there is no assurance that our efforts to recruit and retain qualified personnel will be successful.
Increases in broadband usage may cause network capacity limitations, resulting in service disruptions, reduced capacity or slower transmission speeds for our customers.
Video streaming services, gaming and peer-to-peer file sharing applications use significantly more bandwidth than other Internet activity such as web browsing and email. As use of these newer services continues to grow, our broadband customers will likely use much more bandwidth than in the past. If this occurs, we could be required to make significant capital expenditures to increase network capacity in order to avoid service disruptions, service degradation or slower transmission speeds for our customers. Alternatively, we could choose to implement network management practices to reduce the network capacity available to bandwidth-intensive activities during certain times in market areas experiencing congestion, which could negatively affect our ability to retain and attract customers in affected markets. While we believe demand for these services may drive broadband customers to pay for faster broadband speeds, competitive or regulatory constraints may preclude us from recovering the costs of the necessary network investments. This could result in an adverse impact to our operating margins, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
We have been accused of infringing the intellectual property rights of others and will likely face similar accusations in the future, which could subject us to costly and time-consuming litigation or require us to seek third-party licenses.
From time to time, we receive notices from third parties or are named in lawsuits filed by third parties claiming we have infringed or are infringing upon their intellectual property rights. We are currently responding to several of these notices and claims. Like other communications companies, we have received an increasing number of these notices and claims in the past several years, and expect this industry-wide trend will continue. Responding to these claims may require us to expend significant time and money defending our use of the applicable technology, and divert management’s time and resources away from other business. In certain instances, we may be required to enter into licensing agreements requiring royalty payments or, in the case of litigation, to pay damages. If we are required to take one or more of these actions, our profit margins may decline. In addition, in responding to these claims, we may be required to stop selling or redesign one or more of our products or services, which could significantly and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
Similarly, from time to time, we may need to obtain the right to use certain patents or other intellectual property from third parties to be able to offer new products and services. If we cannot license or otherwise obtain rights to use any required technology from a third party on reasonable terms, our ability to offer new products and services may be prohibited, restricted, made more costly or delayed.
Our operations, financial performance and liquidity are materially reliant on various third parties.
Reliance on other communications providers. To offer voice or data services in certain of our markets, we must either lease network capacity from, or interconnect our network with the infrastructure of, other communications companies who typically compete against us in those markets. Our reliance on these lease or interconnection arrangements limits our control over the quality of our services and exposes us to the risk that our ability to market our services could be adversely impacted by changes in the plans or properties of the carriers upon which we are reliant. In addition, we are exposed to the risk that the other carriers may be unwilling to continue or renew these arrangements in the future on terms favorable to us, or at all. This risk is heightened when the other carrier is a competitor of ours and may benefit from terminating the agreement. If we lose these arrangements and cannot timely replace them, our ability to provide services to our customers and conduct our business could be materially adversely affected.
Conversely, certain of our operations carry a significant amount of voice or data traffic for other communications providers. Their reliance on our services exposes us to the risk that they may transfer all or a portion of this traffic from our network to networks built, owned or leased by them, thereby reducing our revenues. For additional information, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Business Trends" included in Item 2 of Part I of this report.
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We also rely on reseller and sales agency arrangements with our affiliates and other communications companies to provide some of the services that we offer to our customers, including video services. As a reseller or sales agent, we do not control the availability, retail price, design, function, quality, reliability, customer service or branding of these products and services, nor do we directly control all of the marketing and promotion of these products and services. Similar to the risks described above regarding our reliance upon other carriers, we could be adversely affected if these communication companies fail to maintain competitive products or services, or fail to continue to make them available to us on attractive terms, or at all.
Our operations and financial performance could be adversely affected if our relationships with any of these other communications companies are disrupted or terminated for any other reason, including if such other companies:
| • | become bankrupt or experience substantial financial difficulties; |

| • | suffer work stoppages or other labor strife; |

| • | challenge our right to receive payments or services under applicable regulations or the terms of our existing contract arrangements; or |

| • | are otherwise unable or unwilling to make payments or provide services to us. |

Reliance on other key suppliers and vendors. We depend on a limited number of suppliers and vendors for equipment and services relating to our network infrastructure. Our local exchange carrier networks consist of central office and remote sites, all with advanced digital switches. If any of these suppliers experience interruptions or other problems delivering or servicing these network components on a timely basis, our operations could suffer significantly. To the extent that proprietary technology of a supplier is an integral component of our network, we may have limited flexibility to purchase key network components from alternative suppliers and may be adversely affected if third parties assert patent infringement claims against our suppliers or us. We also rely on a limited number of software vendors to support our business management systems and contractors to assist us in connection with our network construction and maintenance activities. In the event it becomes necessary to seek alternative suppliers and vendors, we may be unable to obtain satisfactory replacement supplies, services or utilities on economically attractive terms, on a timely basis, or at all, which could increase costs or cause disruptions in our services.
Reliance on governmental payments. We receive a material amount of revenue or government subsidies under various government programs, which are further described under the heading "Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Legal and Regulatory Matters." We also provide products or services to various federal, state and local agencies. Governmental agencies frequently reserve the right to terminate their contracts for convenience, or to suspend or debar companies from receiving future subsidies or contracts under certain circumstances. If our governmental contracts are terminated for any reason, or if we are suspended or debarred from governmental programs or contracts, our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
If we fail to extend or renegotiate our collective bargaining agreements with our labor unions as they expire from time to time, or if our unionized employees were to engage in a strike or other work stoppage, our business and operating results could be materially harmed.
As of June 30, 2016, approximately 49% of our employees were members of various bargaining units represented by the Communications Workers of America or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. From time to time, our labor agreements with unions expire. Although we typically are able to negotiate new bargaining agreements, we cannot predict the outcome of our future negotiations of these agreements. We may be unable to reach new agreements, and union employees may engage in strikes, work slowdowns or other labor actions, which could materially disrupt our ability to provide services and result in increased cost to us. In addition, new labor agreements may impose significant new costs on us, which could impair our financial condition or results of operations in the future. To the extent they contain benefit provisions, these agreements may also limit our flexibility to change benefits in response to industry or competitive changes. In particular, post-employment benefits provided under these agreements could cause us to incur costs not faced by many of our competitors, which could ultimately hinder our competitive position.
Portions of our property, plant and equipment are located on property owned by third parties.
Over the past few years, certain utilities, cooperatives and municipalities in certain of the states in which we operate have requested significant rate increases for attaching our plant to their facilities. To the extent that these entities are successful in increasing the amount we pay for these attachments, our future operating costs will increase.
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In addition, we rely on rights-of-way, colocation agreements and other authorizations granted by governmental bodies and other third parties to locate our cable, conduit and other network equipment on or under their respective properties. Our operations could be adversely affected if any of these authorizations terminate or lapse, or if the landowner requests price increases.
Our business customers may seek to shift risk to us.
We furnish to and receive from our business customers indemnities relating to damages caused or sustained by us in connection with certain of our operations. Our customers’ changing views on risk allocation could cause us to accept greater risk to win new business or could result in us losing business if we are not prepared to take such risks. To the extent that we accept such additional risk, and seek to insure against it, our insurance premiums could rise.
Unfavorable general economic conditions could negatively impact our operating results and financial condition.
Unfavorable general economic conditions, including unstable economic and credit markets, could negatively affect our business. Worldwide economic growth has been sluggish since 2008, and many experts believe that a confluence of global factors may result in a prolonged period of economic stagnation, slow growth or economic uncertainty. While it is difficult to predict the ultimate impact of these general economic conditions, they could adversely affect demand for some of our products and services and could cause customers to shift to lower priced products and services or to delay or forego purchases of our products and services. These conditions impact, in particular, our ability to sell discretionary products or services to business customers that are under pressure to reduce costs or to governmental customers that have suffered substantial budget cuts in recent years. Any one or more of these circumstances could continue to depress our revenues. Also, our customers may encounter financial hardships or may not be able to obtain adequate access to credit, which could negatively impact their ability to make timely payments to us. In addition, as discussed further below, unstable economic and credit markets may preclude us from refinancing maturing debt at terms that are as favorable as those from which we previously benefited, at terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. For these reasons, among others, if current economic conditions persist or decline, our operating results, financial condition, and liquidity could be adversely affected.
For additional information about our business and operations, see Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Risks Relating to Legal and Regulatory Matters
We operate in a highly regulated industry and are therefore exposed to restrictions on our operations and a variety of claims relating to such regulation.
General. We are subject to significant regulation by, among others, (i) the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), which regulates interstate communications, (ii) state utility commissions, which regulate intrastate communications, and (iii) various foreign governments and international bodies, which regulate our international operations. Generally, we must obtain and maintain certificates of authority or licenses from these bodies in most territories where we offer regulated services. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in obtaining or retaining all licenses necessary to carry out our business plan, and, even if we are, the prescribed service standards and conditions imposed on us in connection with obtaining or acquiring control of these licenses may impose on us substantial costs and limitations. We are also subject to numerous requirements and interpretations under various international, federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations, which are quite detailed and occasionally in conflict with each other. Accordingly, we cannot ensure that we are always considered to be in compliance with all these requirements at any single point in time. The agencies responsible for the enforcement of these laws, rules and regulations may initiate inquiries or actions based on customer complaints or on their own initiative. Even if we are ultimately found to have complied with applicable regulations, such actions or inquiries could create adverse publicity that negatively impacts our business.
Regulation of the telecommunications industry continues to change, and the regulatory environment varies substantially from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. A substantial portion of our local voice services revenue remains subject to FCC and state utility commission pricing regulation, which periodically exposes us to pricing or earnings disputes and could expose us to unanticipated price declines. Interexchange carriers have filed complaints in various forums requesting reductions in our access rates. In addition, several long distance providers are disputing or refusing to pay amounts owed to us for carrying Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") traffic, or traffic they claim to be VoIP traffic. Similarly, some carriers are refusing to pay access charges for certain calls between mobile and wireline devices routed through an interexchange carrier. There can be no assurance that future regulatory, judicial or legislative activities will not have a material adverse effect on our operations, or that regulators or third parties will not raise material issues with regard to our compliance or noncompliance with applicable regulations.
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Risks associated with recent changes in regulation. Historically, our financial performance has been substantially impacted by various aspects of federal regulation, including our receipt in the past of significant universal service payments designed to promote rural telephony. In October 2011, the FCC adopted the Connect America and Intercarrier Compensation Reform order ("the 2011 order") intended to comprehensively reform the existing regulatory regime to focus support on networks capable of providing new technologies, including VoIP and other broadband services, and re-direct federal universal service funding to foster nationwide voice and broadband infrastructure. The 2011 order provides for a multi-year transition as intercarrier compensation charges are reduced, federal universal service funding is explicitly targeted to broadband deployment, and subscriber line charges paid by end-user customers are gradually increased. These changes have, among other things, fundamentally altered the manner in which federal subsidies are calculated and disbursed to us (including terminating substantially all of the old universal service payments paid to us under predecessor support programs), and have substantially increased the pace of reductions in the amount of switched access revenues we receive from our wholesale customers. We expect our participation in the FCC's CAF Phase 2 support program will significantly impact our financial results and capital expenditures in the coming years. For more information, see "Regulation" in Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Item 2 of Part I of this report.
Although the primary judicial challenges to the 2011 order have been resolved in the FCC's favor, petitions asking that the FCC reconsider certain aspects of the 2011 order remain pending and, as a result, future judicial challenges on related issues remain possible. Such proceedings could still cause parts of the 2011 order to be altered or delayed. In addition, based on the outcome of the FCC proceedings, various state commissions may consider changes to their rates and support programs. Moreover, FCC proceedings relating to implementation of the order remain pending. For these and other reasons, we cannot predict the ultimate impact of these proceedings at this time.
In addition, during the last few years Congress or the FCC has initiated various other changes, including various broadband and Internet regulation initiatives including “network neutrality” regulations (as discussed further below) and actions that will restrict our ability to discontinue or reduce certain services, even if unprofitable. In second quarter of 2016, the FCC concluded its special access tariff investigation and initiated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM") to consider changes in Business Data Services ("BDS") regulation. The results of the special access tariff investigation should not have a material impact on us. Several rules changes are being evaluated in the Business Data Services NPRM that may or may not have a material adverse impact on our financial results. The FCC is considering redefining which markets are subject to BDS regulation, broadband speed thresholds that trigger BDS regulation and potential productivity factors that may be limited to specific services or geographies. Given the inextricably intertwined nature of the issues under review in the BDS rulemaking, we will be unable to determine the NPRM’s impact until a final FCC order is issued. The FCC has signaled its desire to issue a BDS order by year end 2016. Any of these recent or pending initiatives could adversely affect our operations or financial results. Moreover, many of the FCC’s regulations adopted in recent years remain subject to judicial review and additional rulemakings, thus increasing the difficulty of determining the ultimate impact of these changes on us and our competitors.
Certain states have recently taken steps that could reduce the amount of their universal service support payments to incumbent local exchange companies. If these trends continue, we would suffer a reduction in our revenues from state support programs.
Risks of higher costs. Regulations continue to create significant operating and capital costs for us. Challenges to our tariffs by regulators or third parties or delays in obtaining certifications and regulatory approvals could cause us to incur substantial legal and administrative expenses, and, if successful, such challenges could adversely affect the rates that we are able to charge our customers.
Our business also may be impacted by legislation and regulation imposing new or greater obligations related to regulations or laws related to regulating broadband services, storing records, bolstering homeland security or cyber security, increasing disaster recovery requirements, minimizing environmental impacts, enhancing privacy, restricting data collection, protecting intellectual property rights of third parties, or addressing other issues that impact our business, including (i) the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which requires communications carriers to ensure that their equipment, facilities, and services are able to facilitate authorized electronic surveillance, and (ii) the USA Freedom Act, which requires communication companies to store records of communications of their customers. We expect our compliance costs to increase if future laws or regulations continue to increase our obligations. In addition, increased regulation of our suppliers could increase our costs.
Increased risks of fines. We have recently paid certain regulatory fines associated with network or service outages, particularly with respect to outages impacting the availability of emergency - 911 services. We believe that regulators are now pursuing higher fines than in the past for these types of incidents, and expect this trend to continue.
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Risks of reduced flexibility. As a diversified full service incumbent local exchange carrier in most of our key markets, we have traditionally been subject to significant regulation that does not apply to many of our competitors. This regulation in many instances restricts our ability to change rates, to compete and to respond rapidly to changing industry conditions. As our business becomes increasingly competitive, regulatory disparities between us and our competitors could impede our ability to compete.
Risks posed by other regulations. All of our operations are also subject to a variety of environmental, safety, health and other governmental regulations. We monitor our compliance with federal, state and local regulations governing the management, discharge and disposal of hazardous and environmentally sensitive materials. Although we believe that we are in compliance with these regulations in all material respects, our management, discharge or disposal of hazardous and environmentally sensitive materials might expose us to claims or actions that could potentially have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our participation in the FCC's Connect America Fund ("CAF") Phase 2 support program poses certain risks.
Our participation in the CAF Phase 2 support program subjects us to certain financial risks. If we fail to attain certain specified infrastructure buildout requirements, the FCC could withhold future CAF support payments until these shortcomings are rectified. In addition, if we are not in compliance with FCC measures at the end of the six-year CAF Phase 2 period, we will have 12 months to attain full compliance. If we are not in full compliance after the additional 12 months, we would incur a penalty equal to 1.89 times the average amount of support per location received in the state over the six-year term, plus a potential penalty of 10% of the total CAF Phase 2 support over the six-year term for the state. The amount of these penalties could be material. To comply with the FCC's buildout requirements, we believe we will need to dedicate a substantial portion of our future capital expenditure budget to the construction of new infrastructure. The CAF-related expenditures could reduce the amount of funds we are willing or able to allocate to other initiatives or projects.
"Open Internet" regulation could limit our ability to operate our broadband business profitably and to manage our broadband facilities efficiently.
In order to continue to provide quality broadband service at attractive prices, we believe we need the continued flexibility to respond to changing consumer demands, to manage bandwidth usage efficiently for the benefit of all customers and to invest in our networks. In 2015, the FCC adopted new regulations that regulate broadband services as a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act. Several companies, including us, have initiated judicial actions challenging the new regulations, which remain pending. The ultimate impact of the new regulations will depend on several factors, including the results of pending litigation and the manner in which the new regulations are implemented and enforced. Although it is premature for us to determine the ultimate impact of the new regulations upon our operations, we currently anticipate that the proposed rules could hamper our ability to operate our data networks efficiently, restrict our ability to implement network management practices necessary to ensure quality service, increase the cost of network extensions and upgrades, and otherwise negatively impact our current operations. It is possible that Congress, the FCC or the courts could take further action in the future to modify regulations affecting the provision of broadband Internet services.
We may be liable for the material that content providers distribute over our network.
Although we believe our liability for third party information stored on or transmitted through our networks is limited, the liability of private network operators is impacted both by changing technology and evolving legal principles that remain unsettled in many jurisdictions. As a private network provider, we could be exposed to legal claims relating to third party content stored or transmitted on our networks. Such claims could involve, among others, allegations of defamation, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, or aiding and abetting restricted activities such as online gambling or pornography. If we decide to implement additional measures to reduce our exposure to these risks, or if we are required to defend ourselves against these kinds of claims, our operations and financial results could be negatively affected.
Any adverse outcome in any material litigation of CenturyLink or its affiliates could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results, on the trading price of our debt securities and on our ability to access the capital markets.
There are several material proceedings pending against CenturyLink and its affiliates, as described in Note 8—Commitments and Contingencies in Item 1 of Part I of CenturyLink's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. Depending on their outcome, any of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our financial position or operating results. We can give you no assurances as to the impact of these matters on our operating results or financial condition.
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We are subject to franchising requirements that could impede our expansion opportunities or result in potential fines or penalties.
We may be required to obtain from municipal authorities operating franchises to install or expand certain facilities related to our fiber transport operations, our competitive local exchange carrier operations, and our facilities-based video services. Some of these franchises may require us to pay franchise fees. Many of our franchise agreements have compliance obligations and failure to comply may result in fines or penalties. In some cases, certain franchise requirements could delay us in expanding our operations or increase the costs of providing these services.
We are exposed to risks arising out of recent legislation affecting U.S. public companies.
Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and related regulations implemented thereunder, are increasing our legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. Any failure to successfully or timely complete annual assessments of our internal controls required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could subject us to sanctions or investigation by regulatory authorities. Any such action could adversely affect our financial results or our reputation with investors, lenders or others.
Changes in any of the above-described laws or regulations may limit our ability to plan, and could subject us to further costs or constraints.
From time to time, the laws or regulations governing us or our customers, or the government's policy of enforcing those laws or regulations, have changed frequently and materially. The variability of these laws could hamper the ability of us and our customers to plan for the future or establish long-term strategies. Moreover, future changes in these laws or regulations could further increase our operating or compliance costs, or further restrict our operational flexibility, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, competitive position, financial condition or prospects.
For a more thorough discussion of the regulatory issues that may affect our business, see "Regulation" in Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Risks Affecting Our Liquidity and Capital Resources
CenturyLink's and our high debt levels expose us to a broad range of risks.
Our ultimate parent, CenturyLink, and we continue to carry significant debt. As of June 30, 2016, the aggregate principal amount of our consolidated long-term debt excluding unamortized premiums, net, and unamortized debt issuance costs, was approximately $7.357 billion (excluding our note payable - affiliate of $884 million), which was included in CenturyLink's consolidated long-term debt of approximately $19.940 billion as of that date. As of the date of this report, approximately $1.946 billion aggregate principal amount of CenturyLink's consolidated debt securities (excluding capital lease and other obligations), which includes approximately $500 million of our debt securities, is scheduled to mature prior to June 30, 2019. While we currently believe that CenturyLink and we will have the financial resources to meet or refinance our obligations when they come due, we cannot fully anticipate our future performance or financial condition, the future condition of CenturyLink, the credit markets or the economy generally. We may incur unexpected expenses or liabilities, and we may have limited access to financing.
Our significant levels of debt can adversely affect us in several other respects, including:
| • | limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, refinancings or other general corporate purposes, particularly if, as discussed further in the risk factor disclosure below, (i) the ratings assigned to our debt securities by nationally recognized credit rating organizations are revised downward or (ii) we seek capital during periods of turbulent or unsettled market conditions; |

| • | requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to the payment of interest and principal on our debt, thereby reducing the funds available to us for other purposes, including acquisitions, capital expenditures, strategic initiatives, dividends; |

| • | hindering our ability to capitalize on business opportunities and to plan for or react to changing market, industry, competitive or economic conditions; |

| • | increasing our future borrowing costs; |

| • | increasing the risk that third parties will be unwilling or unable to engage in hedging or other financial or commercial arrangements with us; |

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| • | making us more vulnerable to economic or industry downturns, including interest rate increases; |

| • | placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to less leveraged competitors; |

| • | increasing the risk that we will need to sell assets, possibly on unfavorable terms, or take other unfavorable actions to meet payment obligations; or |

| • | increasing the risk that we may not meet the financial covenants contained in our debt agreements or timely make all required debt payments. |

The effects of each of these factors could be intensified if we increase our borrowings.
We expect to periodically require financing to meet our debt obligations as they come due. Due to the unstable economy and credit markets, we may not be able to refinance maturing debt at terms that are as favorable as those from which we previously benefited, at terms that are acceptable to us or at all. See below “Risk Factors—Risks Affecting our Liquidity and Capital Resources—CenturyLink and we plan to access the public debt markets, and we cannot assure you that these markets will remain free of disruptions.”
We may also need to obtain additional financing or capital, or to investigate other methods to generate cash (such as further cost reductions or the sale of assets) under a variety of other circumstances, including if revenues and cash provided by operations decline, if economic conditions weaken, if competitive pressures increase, if regulatory requirements change, if CenturyLink is required to contribute a material amount of cash to its pension plans, if CenturyLink is required to begin to pay other post-retirement benefits significantly earlier than is anticipated, or if CenturyLink becomes subject to significant judgments or settlements in one or more of the matters discussed in Note 5—Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of Part I of this report and Note 8—Commitments and Contingencies to the consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of Part I of CenturyLink's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. For all the reasons mentioned above, we can give no assurance that additional financing for any of these purposes will be available on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all.
Certain of CenturyLink's and our debt instruments have cross payment default or cross acceleration provisions. When present, these provisions could have a wider impact on liquidity than might otherwise arise from a default or acceleration of a single debt instrument. Any such event could adversely affect our ability to conduct business or access the capital markets and could adversely impact our credit ratings. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources" in CenturyLink's quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC for additional information about CenturyLink's indebtedness.
In addition, our ability to borrow funds in the future will depend in part on the satisfaction of the covenants in our term loan and other debt instruments. If we are unable to satisfy the covenants contained in those instruments, or are unable to generate cash sufficient to make required debt payments, the parties to whom we are indebted could accelerate the maturity of some or all of our outstanding indebtedness.
As noted above, if we are unable to make required debt payments or refinance our debt, we would likely have to consider other options, such as selling assets, issuing additional securities, cutting costs or otherwise reducing our cash requirements, or negotiating with our lenders to restructure our applicable debt. The indentures governing our senior notes may restrict, or market or business conditions may limit, our ability to do some of these things on favorable terms, or at all.
Our debt agreements and the debt agreements of CenturyLink and its other subsidiaries allow us to incur significantly more debt, which could exacerbate the other risks described in this report.
The terms of our debt instruments and the debt instruments of CenturyLink and its other subsidiaries permit us to incur additional indebtedness. Additional debt may be necessary for many reasons, including those discussed above. Incremental borrowings that impose additional financial risks could exacerbate the other risks described in this report.
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Any downgrade in our credit ratings could limit our ability to obtain future financing, increase our borrowing costs and adversely affect the market price of our existing debt securities or otherwise impair our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As noted above in Item 2 of Part I of this report, our long-term debt is currently rated BBB- by Standard and Poor's Ratings Services and BBB- by Fitch Ratings, (i) both of which are the lowest investment grade ratings issued by each of these agencies and (ii) rated Ba1 by Moody's Investors Services, which is a non-investment grade rating. If either Standard and Poor's Rating Services or Fitch Ratings assigned us a non-investment grade, we would no longer be viewed as an "investment grade" issuer and would lose the benefits attendant thereto. Credit rating agencies continually review their ratings for the companies that they follow, including us. Credit rating agencies also evaluate the industries in which we operate as a whole and may change their credit rating for us based on their overall view of such industries. There can be no assurance that any rating assigned to any of these debt securities will remain in effect for any given period of time or that any such ratings will not be lowered, suspended or withdrawn entirely by a rating agency if, in that rating agency's judgment, circumstances so warrant. A downgrade of our credit ratings could adversely affect the market price of some or all of our outstanding debt securities, limit our access to the capital markets or otherwise adversely affect the availability of other new financing on favorable terms, if at all, trigger the application of restrictive covenants in certain of our debt agreements or result in new or more restrictive covenants in agreements governing the terms of any future indebtedness that we may incur, increase our cost of borrowing, and impair our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business requires us to incur substantial capital and operating expenses, which reduce our available free cash flow.
Our business is capital intensive, and we anticipate that our capital requirements will continue to be significant in the coming years. As noted elsewhere in this report, we committed to spend substantial sums to construct infrastructure in connection with our participation in the FCC's CAF Phase 2 program. In addition, as discussed further under "Risk Factors—Risks Affecting Our Business—Increases in broadband usage may cause network capacity limitations, resulting in service disruptions, reduced capacity or slower transmission speeds for our customers," increased bandwidth consumption by consumers and businesses has placed increased demands on the transmission capacity of our networks. If we determine that our networks must be expanded to handle these increased demands or as needed to meet CAF Phase 2 infrastructure requirements, we may determine that substantial additional capital expenditures are required, even though there is no assurance that the return on our investment will be satisfactory. In addition, many of our growth and modernization initiatives are capital intensive and changes in technology could require further spending. In addition to investing in expanded networks, new products or new technologies, we must from time to time invest capital to (i) replace some of our aging equipment that supports many of our legacy services that are experiencing revenue declines or (ii) convert older systems to simplify and modernize our network. While we believe that our planned level of capital expenditures will meet both our maintenance and core growth requirements, this may not be the case if demands on our network continue to accelerate or other circumstances underlying our expectations change. Increased spending could, among other things, adversely affect our operating margins, cash flows, results of operations and financial position.
Similarly, we continue to anticipate incurring substantial operating expenses to support our incumbent services and growth initiatives. Although we have successfully reduced certain of our operating expenses over the past few years, we may be unable to further reduce these costs, even if revenues in some of our lines of business are decreasing. If so, our operating margins will be adversely impacted.
Adverse changes in the value of assets or obligations associated with CenturyLink's qualified pension plan could negatively impact CenturyLink's liquidity, which may in turn affect our business and liquidity.
A substantial amount of our employees participate in a qualified pension plan sponsored by CenturyLink that has assumed the obligations under QCII's predecessor pension plan.
The funded status of CenturyLink's qualified pension plan is the difference between the value of the plan's assets and the benefit obligation. The accounting unfunded status of CenturyLink's qualified pension plan was $2.215 billion as of December 31, 2015. Adverse changes in interest rates or market conditions, among other assumptions and factors, could cause a significant increase in CenturyLink's benefit obligation or a significant decrease in the value of the plan's assets. These adverse changes could require CenturyLink to contribute a material amount of cash to its pension plan or could accelerate the timing of required cash payments. The amounts contributed by us through CenturyLink are not segregated or restricted and may be used to provide benefits to employees of CenturyLink's other subsidiaries. Based on current laws and circumstances, CenturyLink does not expect it will be required to make a contribution to its plan in 2016. The actual amount of required contributions to its plan in 2017 and beyond will depend on earnings on plan investments, prevailing interest and discount rates, demographic experience, changes in plan benefits and changes in funding laws and regulations. Any future material cash contributions could have a negative impact on CenturyLink's liquidity by reducing their cash flows, which in turn could affect our liquidity.
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CenturyLink and we plan to access the public debt markets, and we cannot assure you that these markets will remain free of disruptions.
CenturyLink and we have a significant amount of indebtedness that we both intend to refinance over the next several years, principally we expect through the issuance of debt securities of CenturyLink, us or both. CenturyLink's and our ability to arrange additional financing will depend on, among other factors, the financial position, performance, and credit ratings of CenturyLink and QC, as well as prevailing market conditions and other factors beyond its or our control. Prevailing market conditions could be adversely affected by the ongoing disruptions in domestic or overseas sovereign or corporate debt markets, contractions or limited growth in the economy or other similar adverse economic developments in the U.S. or abroad. Instability in the global financial markets has from time to time resulted in periodic volatility in the capital markets. This volatility could limit CenturyLink's and our access to the credit markets, leading to higher borrowing costs or, in some cases, the inability to obtain financing on terms that are acceptable to it, or at all. Any such failure to obtain additional financing could jeopardize its and our ability to repay, refinance or reduce its or our debt obligations.
Other Risks
We regularly transfer our cash to CenturyLink, which exposes us to certain risks.
Under our cash management arrangement with CenturyLink, we regularly transfer our cash to CenturyLink, which we recognize on our consolidated balance sheets as advances to affiliates. Although CenturyLink periodically repays these advances to fund our cash requirements throughout the year, at any given point in time CenturyLink may owe us a substantial sum under this arrangement. Accordingly, developments that adversely impact CenturyLink could adversely impact our ability to collect these advances.
If conditions or assumptions differ from the judgments, assumptions or estimates used in our critical accounting policies, our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures could be materially affected.
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make judgments, assumptions and estimates that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Our critical accounting policies, which are described in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates" in Item 7 of Part II of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, describe those significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements that are considered "critical" because they require judgments, assumptions and estimates that materially impact our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. As a result, if future events or assumptions differ significantly from the judgments, assumptions and estimates in our critical accounting policies, these events or assumptions could have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.
Lapses in disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting could materially and adversely affect our operations, profitability or reputation.
There can be no assurance that our disclosure controls and procedures will be effective in the future or that we will not experience a material weakness or significant deficiency in internal control over financial reporting. Any such lapses or deficiencies may materially and adversely affect our business, operating results or financial condition, restrict our ability to access the capital markets, require us to expend significant resources to correct the lapses or deficiencies, expose us to regulatory or legal proceedings, including litigation brought by private individuals, subject us to fines, penalties or judgments, harm our reputation, or otherwise cause a decline in investor confidence.
We have a significant amount of goodwill, customer relationships and other intangible assets on our consolidated balance sheet. If our goodwill or other intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings and reduce our stockholders' equity.
As of June 30, 2016, approximately 57% of our total consolidated assets reflected on the consolidated balance sheet included in this report consisted of goodwill, customer relationships and other intangible assets. Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, most of these intangible assets must be tested for impairment on an annual basis or more frequently whenever events or circumstances indicate that their carrying value may not be recoverable. From time to time, our affiliates or predecessors have recorded large non-cash charges to earnings in connection with required reductions of the value of their intangible assets. If our intangible assets are determined to be impaired in the future, we may similarly be required to record significant, non-cash charges to earnings during the period in which the impairment is determined to have occurred.
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Tax audits or changes in tax laws could adversely affect us.
For periods after the April 1, 2011 closing of CenturyLink's acquisition of QCII, we are included in the consolidated federal income tax return of CenturyLink. As such, we could be severally liable for tax examinations and adjustments attributable to other members of the QCII or CenturyLink affiliated groups, as applicable. Significant taxpayers (such as QCII for periods prior to the CenturyLink acquisition and CenturyLink for periods after the CenturyLink acquisition) are subject to frequent and regular audits by the Internal Revenue Service as well as state and local tax authorities. These audits could subject us to tax liabilities if adverse positions are taken by these tax authorities.
Tax sharing agreements have been executed between QCII and previous affiliates, and QCII believes the liabilities, if any, arising from adjustments to previously filed returns would be borne by the affiliated group member determined to have a deficiency under the terms and conditions of such agreements and applicable tax law. We have not generally provided reserves for liabilities attributable to former affiliated companies or for claims they have asserted or may assert against us.
We believe that we have adequately provided for tax contingencies. However, CenturyLink's or QCII's tax audits and examinations may result in tax liabilities that differ materially from those that we have recognized in our consolidated financial statements. Because the ultimate outcomes of all of these matters are uncertain, we can give no assurance as to whether an adverse result from one or more of them will have a material effect on our financial results.
Legislators and regulators at all levels of government may from time to time change existing tax laws or regulations or enact new laws or regulations that could negatively impact our operating results or financial condition.
For information on risk faced by CenturyLink that could weaken its financial position (and thereby indirectly impact us), see the risk factor disclosures set forth in CenturyLink's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC.
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Other Information
CenturyLink's and our website is www.centurylink.com. We routinely post important investor information in the "Investor Relations" section of our website at ir.centurylink.com. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, our website is not part of this quarterly report. You may obtain free electronic copies of our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and all amendments to those reports in the "Investor Relations" section of our website (ir.centurylink.com) under the heading "SEC Filings." These reports are available on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file them with the SEC.
In addition to historical information, this quarterly report includes certain forward-looking statements that are based upon our judgment and assumptions as of the date of this report concerning future developments and events, many of which are beyond our control. These forward-looking statements, and the assumptions upon which they are based, are not guarantees of future results, are inherently speculative and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual events and results may differ materially from those anticipated, estimated, projected or implied by us in those statements if one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect. Factors that could affect actual results include but are not limited to: the effects of competition from a wide variety of competitive providers, including lower demand for our legacy offerings; the effects of new, emerging or competing technologies, including those that could make our products less desirable or obsolete; the effects of ongoing changes in the regulation of the communications industry, including the outcome of regulatory or judicial proceedings relating to intercarrier compensation, interconnection obligations, access charges, universal service, broadband deployment, data protection and net neutrality; our ability to effectively adjust to changes in the communications industry, and changes in the composition of our markets and product mix; possible changes in the demand for, or pricing of, our products and services, including our ability to effectively respond to increased demand for high-speed broadband service; our ability to successfully maintain the quality and profitability of our existing product and service offerings and to introduce new offerings on a timely and cost-effective basis; the adverse impact on our business and network from possible equipment failures, service outages, security breaches or similar events impacting our network; our ability to generate cash flows sufficient to fund our financial commitments and objectives, including our capital expenditures, operating costs, dividends, pension contributions and debt payments; changes in our operating plans, corporate strategies, dividend payment plans or other capital allocation plans, whether based upon changes in our cash flows, cash requirements, financial performance, financial position, or otherwise; our ability to effectively retain and hire key personnel and to successfully negotiate collective bargaining agreements on reasonable terms without work stoppages; increases in the costs of CenturyLink's pension, health, post-employment or other benefits, including those caused by changes in markets, interest rates, mortality rates, demographics or regulations, which may in turn affect our business and liquidity; adverse changes in our access to credit markets on favorable terms, whether caused by changes in our financial position, lower debt credit ratings, unstable markets or otherwise; our ability to maintain favorable relations with our key business partners, suppliers, vendors, landlords and financial institutions; our ability to effectively manage our network buildout project and other expansion opportunities; our ability to collect our receivables from financially troubled customers; any adverse developments in legal or regulatory proceedings involving us or our affiliates (including CenturyLink); changes in tax, communications, pension, healthcare or other laws or regulations, in governmental support programs, or in general government funding levels; the effects of changes in accounting policies or practices, including potential future impairment charges; the effects of terrorism, adverse weather or other natural or man-made disasters; the effects of more general factors such as changes in interest rates, in operating costs, in general market, labor, economic or geo-political conditions, or in public policy; and other risks referenced in Item 1A or elsewhere in this Quarterly Report or other of our filings with the SEC. You should be aware that new factors may emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to identify all such factors nor can we predict the impact of each such factor on the business or the extent to which any one or more factors may cause actual results to differ from those reflected in any forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, we caution investors not to unduly rely upon our forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements for any reason, whether as a result of new information, future events or developments, changed circumstances, or otherwise. Furthermore, any information about our intentions contained in any of our forward-looking statements reflects our intentions as of the date of this report, and is based upon, among other things, existing regulatory, technological, industry, competitive, economic and market conditions, and our assumptions as of such date. We may change our intentions, strategies or plans at any time and without notice, based upon any changes in such factors, in our assumptions or otherwise.
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ITEM 3. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
We have omitted this information pursuant to General Instruction H(2).
ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Disclosure Controls and Procedures
The Company maintains disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”)) designed to provide reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed by the Company in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. These include controls and procedures designed to ensure that this information is accumulated and communicated to the Company’s management, including its Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer, Glen F. Post, III, and our Chief Financial Officer, R. Stewart Ewing, Jr., evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as of June 30, 2016. Based on this evaluation, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of June 30, 2016, in providing reasonable assurance that the information required to be disclosed by us in this report was accumulated and communicated in the manner provided above.
The effectiveness of our or any system of disclosure controls and procedures is subject to certain limitations, including the exercise of judgment in designing, implementing and evaluating the controls and procedures, the assumptions used in identifying the likelihood of future events and the inability to eliminate misconduct completely. As a result, there can be no assurance that our disclosure controls and procedures will detect all errors or fraud. By their nature, our or any system of disclosure controls and procedures can provide only reasonable assurance regarding management's control objectives.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the second quarter of 2016 that materially affected, or that we believe are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
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PART II—OTHER INFORMATION
ITEM 1. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
The information contained in Note 5—Commitments and Contingencies included in Item 1 of Part I of this report is incorporated herein by reference.
ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
The following discussion of “risk factors” identifies the most significant risks or uncertainties that could (i) materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity or prospects or (ii) cause our actual results to differ materially from our anticipated results or other expectations. You should carefully consider these factors, in addition to the other information set forth in this report and our subsequent filings with the SEC, when evaluating our business and whether to purchase, sell or hold our securities. Please note that the following discussion is not intended to comprehensively list all risks or uncertainties faced by us. Our operations or actual results could also be similarly impacted by additional risks and uncertainties that are not currently known to us, that we currently deem to be immaterial, that arise in the future or that are not specific to us, such as general economic conditions.
Risks Affecting Our Business
We may not be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors.
Each of our offerings to our residential and business customers face increasingly intense competition from a variety of sources under evolving market conditions. We expect these trends will continue. In addition to competition from larger national telecommunications providers, we are facing increasing competition from several other sources, including cable and satellite companies, wireless providers, technology companies, broadband providers, device providers, resellers, sales agents and facilities-based providers using their own networks as well as those leasing parts of our network. In particular, (i) intense competition from wireless and other communications providers has led to a long-term systemic decline in the number of our customers for wireline voice services, (ii) strong competition from cable companies and others has impacted the growth of our broadband operations and (iii) aggressive competition from a wide range of technology companies and other market entrants has limited the prospects for our cloud computing operations. For more detailed information, see "Competition" under Item 1 of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Some of our current and potential competitors (i) offer products or services that are substitutes for our wireline voice services, including wireless voice and non-voice communication services, (ii) offer a more comprehensive range of communications products and services, (iii) offer products or services with features that we cannot readily match in some or all of our markets, including faster average broadband transmission speeds and greater content, (iv) offer shorter installation intervals, allowing customers to begin receiving services sooner after ordering, (v) have market presence, engineering and technical capabilities, and financial and other resources greater than ours, (vi) have larger or more diverse networks with greater transmission capacity or other advantages, (vii) conduct operations or raise capital at a lower cost than us, (viii) are subject to less regulation, which we believe enables such competitors to operate more flexibly than us with respect to certain offerings, (ix) offer services nationally or internationally to a larger geographic area or larger base of customers, (x) have substantially stronger brand names, which may provide them with greater pricing power than ours, or (xi) have larger operations than ours, which may enable them to offer higher compensation packages in connection with recruiting and retaining top technological, managerial and operational talent. Consequently, these competitors may be better equipped to provide more attractive offerings, to charge lower prices for their products and services, to develop and expand their communications and network infrastructure more quickly, to adapt more swiftly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements, to devote greater resources to the marketing and sale of their products and services, to provide more comprehensive customer service, to provide greater resources to research and development initiatives and to take advantage of acquisition or other opportunities more readily. In the past, several of our competitors and their operations have grown through acquisitions and aggressive product development. The continued growth of our competitors could further enhance their competitive positions.
Competition could adversely impact us in several ways, including (i) the loss of customers and market share, (ii) the possibility of customers reducing their usage of our services or shifting to less profitable services, (iii) reduced traffic on our networks, (iv) our need to expend substantial time or money on new capital improvement projects, (v) our need to lower prices or increase marketing expenses to remain competitive and (vi) our inability to diversify by successfully offering new products or services.
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We are continually taking steps to respond to these competitive pressures, but these efforts may not be successful. Our operating results and financial condition would be adversely affected if these initiatives are unsuccessful or insufficient and if we otherwise are unable to sufficiently stem our continuing access line losses and our legacy revenue declines. If this occurred, our ability to pay our debt and other obligations and to re-invest in the business would also be adversely affected.
Rapid technological changes could significantly impact our competitive and financial position.
The communications industry has been and continues to be impacted by significant technological changes, which in general are enhancing non-voice communications and enabling a broader array of companies to offer services competitive with ours. Many of those technological changes are (i) displacing or reducing demand for our wireline voice services, (ii) enabling the development of competitive products or services, or (iii) enabling our current customers to reduce or bypass use of our networks. Rapid changes in technology are increasing the competitiveness of the information technology services industry. In addition, demand for our broadband services has been constrained by certain technologies permitting cable companies and other competitors to deliver faster average broadband transmission speeds than ours. Demand for our broadband services could be further reduced by advanced wireless data transmission technologies being deployed by wireless providers, including "long-term evolution" or "LTE" technologies, especially if these wireless providers continue to increase their broadband transmission speed and decrease their service rates. To enhance the competitiveness of our broadband services, we may be required to expend additional capital to augment the capabilities of our copper-based services or to install more fiber optic cable.
We may not be able to accurately predict or respond to changes in technology or industry standards, or to the introduction of newly-offered services. Any of these developments could make some or all of our offerings less desirable or even obsolete. These developments could also require us to (i) expend capital or other resources in excess of currently contemplated levels, (ii) forego the development or provision of products or services that others can provide more efficiently, or (iii) make other changes to our operating plans, corporate strategies or capital allocation plans, any of which could be contrary to the expectations of our security holders or could adversely impact our operations. If we are not able to develop new products and services to keep pace with technological advances, or if those products and services are not widely accepted by customers, our ability to compete could be adversely affected and our market share could decline. Any inability to effectively respond to technological changes could also adversely affect our operating results and financial condition, as well as our ability to service debt and fund other commitments or initiatives.
Even if we succeed in adapting to changes in technology or industry standards by developing new products or services, there is no assurance that the new products or services would have a positive impact on our profit margins or financial performance.
In addition to introducing new technologies and offerings, we may need, from time to time, to phase out outdated and unprofitable technologies and services. If we are unable to do so, on a cost-effective basis, we could experience reduced profits.
For additional information on the risks of increased expenditures, see "Risk Factors—Risks Affecting our Liquidity and Capital Resources—Our business requires us to incur substantial capital and operating expenses, which reduces our available free cash flow."
Our legacy services continue to experience declining revenues, and our efforts to offset these declines may not be successful.
Primarily as a result of the competitive and technological changes discussed above, we have experienced a prolonged systemic decline in our access lines and network access revenues. We have also experienced a decline in our private line revenues due to our customers' optimization of their networks, industry consolidation, price compression and technological migration to higher-speed services.
We have taken a variety of steps to counter these declines in our legacy services revenues, including:
| • | an increased focus on selling a broader range of higher-growth strategic services, which are described in detail elsewhere in this report; |

| • | an increased focus on serving a broader range of business, governmental and wholesale customers; and |

| • | greater use of service bundles. |

However, for the reasons described elsewhere in this report, most of our strategic services generate lower profit margins than our legacy services, and some can be expected to experience slowing growth as increasing numbers of our existing or potential customers subscribe to our newer strategic product and service offerings. Moreover, we cannot assure you that the revenues generated from our new offerings will offset revenue losses associated with our legacy services. In addition, our reliance on third parties to provide certain of these strategic services could constrain our flexibility, as described further below.
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Our ability to successfully introduce new product or service offerings on a timely and cost-effective basis could be constrained by a range of factors, including network limitations, limited capital, an inability to attract key personnel with the necessary skills, intellectual property constraints, testing delays, or an inability to act as quickly as smaller, more nimble start-up competitors. Similarly, our ability to grow through acquisitions could be limited by several factors, including our leverage and inability to identify attractively-priced target companies. For these reasons, we cannot assure you that our new product or service offerings will be as successful as anticipated, or that we will be able to continue to grow through acquisitions.
We may not be able to successfully adjust to changes in our industry, our markets and our product mix.
Ongoing changes in the communications industry have fundamentally changed consumers’ communications expectations and requirements. In response to these changes, we have substantially altered our product and service offerings through acquisitions and internal product development. Many of these changes have placed a higher premium on sales, marketing and product development functions, and necessitated ongoing changes in our processes and operating protocols, as well as periodic reorganizations of our sales and leadership teams. In addition, we now offer a more complex range of products and services, operate larger and more complex networks and serve a much larger and more diverse set of customers. Consequently, we now face greater challenges in effectively managing and administering our operations and allocating capital and other resources to our various offerings. For all these reasons, we cannot assure you that our efforts to adjust to these changes will be timely or successful.
We could be harmed by security breaches, damages or other significant disruptions or failures of our networks, information technology infrastructure or related systems, or of those we operate for certain of our customers.
We are materially reliant upon our networks, information technology infrastructure and related technology systems (including our billing and provisioning systems) to provide products and services to our customers and to manage our operations and affairs. We face the risk, as does any company, of a security breach or significant disruption of our information technology infrastructure and related systems. As a communications company that transmits large amounts of sensitive and proprietary information over communications networks, we face an added risk that a security breach or other significant disruption of our public networks or information technology infrastructure and related systems that we develop, install, operate and maintain for certain of our business customers (which includes our wholesale and governmental customers) could lead to material interruptions or curtailments of service. Moreover, in connection with processing and storing confidential customer data, we face a heightened risk that a security breach or disruption could result in unauthorized access to our customers' proprietary information on our public networks or internal systems or the systems that we operate and maintain for certain of our customers.
We make significant efforts to maintain the security and integrity of information and systems under our control, and maintain contingency plans in the event of security breaches or other system disruptions. Nonetheless, we cannot assure you that our security efforts and measures will prevent unauthorized access to our systems, loss or destruction of data (including confidential customer information), account takeovers, unavailability of service, computer viruses, malware, distributed denial-of-service attacks, or other forms of cyber-attacks or similar events. These threats may derive from human error, hardware or software vulnerabilities, fraud, malice or sabotage on the part of employees, third parties or other nations, or could result from aging equipment or other accidental technological failure. These threats may also arise from failure or breaches of systems owned, operated or controlled by other unaffiliated operators to the extent we rely on such other operations to deliver services to our customers.
Similar to other large telecommunications companies, we are a constant target of cyber-attacks of varying degrees. Although some of these attacks have resulted in security breaches, to date, none of these breaches have resulted in a material adverse effect on our operating results or financial condition. You should be aware, however, that defenses against cyber-attacks currently available to U.S. companies are unlikely to prevent intrusions by a highly-determined, highly-sophisticated hacker. Consequently, you should assume that we will be unable to implement security barriers or other preventative measures that repel all future cyber-attacks. Any such future security breaches or disruptions could materially adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition, especially in light of the growing frequency, scope and well-documented sophistication of cyber-attacks and intrusions.
Although CenturyLink maintains insurance coverage that may, subject to policy terms and conditions (including self-insured deductibles, coverage restrictions and monetary coverage caps), cover certain aspects of our cyber risks, such insurance coverage may be unavailable or insufficient to cover our losses.
Additional risks to our network, infrastructure and related systems include:
| • | power losses or physical damage, whether caused by fire, adverse weather conditions, terrorism, sabotage, vandalism or otherwise; |

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| • | capacity or system configuration limitations, including those resulting from changes in our customer's usage patterns, the introduction of new technologies or products, or incompatibilities between our newer and older systems; |

| • | theft or failure of our equipment; |

| • | software or hardware obsolescence, defects or malfunctions; |

| • | deficiencies in our processes or controls; |

| • | programming, processing and other human error; and |

| • | service failures of our third-party vendors and other disruptions that are beyond our control. |

Due to these factors, from time to time in the ordinary course of our business we experience short disruptions in our service, and could experience more significant disruptions in the future.
Disruptions, security breaches and other significant failures of the above-described networks and systems could:
| • | disrupt the proper functioning of these networks and systems, which could in turn disrupt (i) our operations or (ii) the operations of certain of our customers who rely upon us to provide services critical to their operations; |

| • | require significant management attention or financial resources to remedy the damages that result or to change our systems, including expenses to repair systems, add new personnel or develop additional protective systems; |

| • | result in the unauthorized access to, and destruction, loss, theft, misappropriation or release of proprietary, confidential, sensitive, classified or otherwise valuable information of ours, our customers or our customers' end users, including trade secrets, which others could use for competitive, disruptive, destructive or otherwise harmful purposes and outcomes; |

| • | require us to notify customers, regulatory agencies or the public of data breaches; |

| • | require us to provide credits for future service under certain service level commitments we have provided contractually to our customers or to offer expensive incentives to retain customers; |

| • | subject us to claims for damages, fines, penalties, termination or other remedies under our customer contracts or service standards set by state regulatory commissions, which in certain cases could exceed our insurance coverage; or |

| • | result in a loss of business, damage our reputation among our customers and the public generally, subject us to additional regulatory scrutiny or expose us to prolonged litigation. |

We could experience difficulties in expanding and updating our technical infrastructure.
Our ability to expand and update our systems and information technology infrastructure in response to our growth and changing business needs is important to our ability to maintain and develop attractive product and service offerings. As discussed further under “Business—Network Architecture” in Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, we are currently undertaking several complex, costly and time-consuming projects to simplify and modernize our network, which combines our legacy network and CenturyLink's networks. Unanticipated delays in the completion of these projects may lead to increased project costs or operational inefficiencies. In addition, there may be issues related to our expanded or updated infrastructure that are not identified by our testing processes, and which may only become evident after we have started to fully utilize the redesigned systems. Our failure to modernize and upgrade our technology infrastructure could have adverse consequences, including the delayed implementation of new service offerings, decreased competitiveness of existing service offerings, network instabilities, increased operating or acquisition integration costs, service or billing interruptions, and the diversion of development resources.
Any or all of the foregoing developments could have a negative impact on our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
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If we fail to hire and retain qualified executives, managers and employees, our operating results could be harmed.
Our future success depends on our ability to identify, hire, train and retain executives, managers and employees with technological, engineering, product development, operational, provisioning, marketing, sales, administrative and managerial skills. There is a shortage of qualified personnel in several of these fields nationally and in our headquarters city of Monroe, Louisiana, in particular. We compete with several other companies for this limited pool of potential employees. As our industry increasingly becomes more competitive, it could become especially difficult to attract and retain top personnel with skills in high demand. In addition, subject to limited exceptions, none of our executives or domestic employees have long-term employment agreements. For all these reasons, there is no assurance that our efforts to recruit and retain qualified personnel will be successful.
Increases in broadband usage may cause network capacity limitations, resulting in service disruptions, reduced capacity or slower transmission speeds for our customers.
Video streaming services, gaming and peer-to-peer file sharing applications use significantly more bandwidth than other Internet activity such as web browsing and email. As use of these newer services continues to grow, our broadband customers will likely use much more bandwidth than in the past. If this occurs, we could be required to make significant capital expenditures to increase network capacity in order to avoid service disruptions, service degradation or slower transmission speeds for our customers. Alternatively, we could choose to implement network management practices to reduce the network capacity available to bandwidth-intensive activities during certain times in market areas experiencing congestion, which could negatively affect our ability to retain and attract customers in affected markets. While we believe demand for these services may drive broadband customers to pay for faster broadband speeds, competitive or regulatory constraints may preclude us from recovering the costs of the necessary network investments. This could result in an adverse impact to our operating margins, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
We have been accused of infringing the intellectual property rights of others and will likely face similar accusations in the future, which could subject us to costly and time-consuming litigation or require us to seek third-party licenses.
From time to time, we receive notices from third parties or are named in lawsuits filed by third parties claiming we have infringed or are infringing upon their intellectual property rights. We are currently responding to several of these notices and claims. Like other communications companies, we have received an increasing number of these notices and claims in the past several years, and expect this industry-wide trend will continue. Responding to these claims may require us to expend significant time and money defending our use of the applicable technology, and divert management’s time and resources away from other business. In certain instances, we may be required to enter into licensing agreements requiring royalty payments or, in the case of litigation, to pay damages. If we are required to take one or more of these actions, our profit margins may decline. In addition, in responding to these claims, we may be required to stop selling or redesign one or more of our products or services, which could significantly and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
Similarly, from time to time, we may need to obtain the right to use certain patents or other intellectual property from third parties to be able to offer new products and services. If we cannot license or otherwise obtain rights to use any required technology from a third party on reasonable terms, our ability to offer new products and services may be prohibited, restricted, made more costly or delayed.
Our operations, financial performance and liquidity are materially reliant on various third parties.
Reliance on other communications providers. To offer voice or data services in certain of our markets, we must either lease network capacity from, or interconnect our network with the infrastructure of, other communications companies who typically compete against us in those markets. Our reliance on these lease or interconnection arrangements limits our control over the quality of our services and exposes us to the risk that our ability to market our services could be adversely impacted by changes in the plans or properties of the carriers upon which we are reliant. In addition, we are exposed to the risk that the other carriers may be unwilling to continue or renew these arrangements in the future on terms favorable to us, or at all. This risk is heightened when the other carrier is a competitor of ours and may benefit from terminating the agreement. If we lose these arrangements and cannot timely replace them, our ability to provide services to our customers and conduct our business could be materially adversely affected.
Conversely, certain of our operations carry a significant amount of voice or data traffic for other communications providers. Their reliance on our services exposes us to the risk that they may transfer all or a portion of this traffic from our network to networks built, owned or leased by them, thereby reducing our revenues. For additional information, see "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Business Trends" included in Item 2 of Part I of this report.
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We also rely on reseller and sales agency arrangements with our affiliates and other communications companies to provide some of the services that we offer to our customers, including video services. As a reseller or sales agent, we do not control the availability, retail price, design, function, quality, reliability, customer service or branding of these products and services, nor do we directly control all of the marketing and promotion of these products and services. Similar to the risks described above regarding our reliance upon other carriers, we could be adversely affected if these communication companies fail to maintain competitive products or services, or fail to continue to make them available to us on attractive terms, or at all.
Our operations and financial performance could be adversely affected if our relationships with any of these other communications companies are disrupted or terminated for any other reason, including if such other companies:
| • | become bankrupt or experience substantial financial difficulties; |

| • | suffer work stoppages or other labor strife; |

| • | challenge our right to receive payments or services under applicable regulations or the terms of our existing contract arrangements; or |

| • | are otherwise unable or unwilling to make payments or provide services to us. |

Reliance on other key suppliers and vendors. We depend on a limited number of suppliers and vendors for equipment and services relating to our network infrastructure. Our local exchange carrier networks consist of central office and remote sites, all with advanced digital switches. If any of these suppliers experience interruptions or other problems delivering or servicing these network components on a timely basis, our operations could suffer significantly. To the extent that proprietary technology of a supplier is an integral component of our network, we may have limited flexibility to purchase key network components from alternative suppliers and may be adversely affected if third parties assert patent infringement claims against our suppliers or us. We also rely on a limited number of software vendors to support our business management systems and contractors to assist us in connection with our network construction and maintenance activities. In the event it becomes necessary to seek alternative suppliers and vendors, we may be unable to obtain satisfactory replacement supplies, services or utilities on economically attractive terms, on a timely basis, or at all, which could increase costs or cause disruptions in our services.
Reliance on governmental payments. We receive a material amount of revenue or government subsidies under various government programs, which are further described under the heading "Risk Factors—Risks Relating to Legal and Regulatory Matters." We also provide products or services to various federal, state and local agencies. Governmental agencies frequently reserve the right to terminate their contracts for convenience, or to suspend or debar companies from receiving future subsidies or contracts under certain circumstances. If our governmental contracts are terminated for any reason, or if we are suspended or debarred from governmental programs or contracts, our results of operations and financial condition could be materially adversely affected.
If we fail to extend or renegotiate our collective bargaining agreements with our labor unions as they expire from time to time, or if our unionized employees were to engage in a strike or other work stoppage, our business and operating results could be materially harmed.
As of June 30, 2016, approximately 49% of our employees were members of various bargaining units represented by the Communications Workers of America or the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. From time to time, our labor agreements with unions expire. Although we typically are able to negotiate new bargaining agreements, we cannot predict the outcome of our future negotiations of these agreements. We may be unable to reach new agreements, and union employees may engage in strikes, work slowdowns or other labor actions, which could materially disrupt our ability to provide services and result in increased cost to us. In addition, new labor agreements may impose significant new costs on us, which could impair our financial condition or results of operations in the future. To the extent they contain benefit provisions, these agreements may also limit our flexibility to change benefits in response to industry or competitive changes. In particular, post-employment benefits provided under these agreements could cause us to incur costs not faced by many of our competitors, which could ultimately hinder our competitive position.
Portions of our property, plant and equipment are located on property owned by third parties.
Over the past few years, certain utilities, cooperatives and municipalities in certain of the states in which we operate have requested significant rate increases for attaching our plant to their facilities. To the extent that these entities are successful in increasing the amount we pay for these attachments, our future operating costs will increase.
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In addition, we rely on rights-of-way, colocation agreements and other authorizations granted by governmental bodies and other third parties to locate our cable, conduit and other network equipment on or under their respective properties. Our operations could be adversely affected if any of these authorizations terminate or lapse, or if the landowner requests price increases.
Our business customers may seek to shift risk to us.
We furnish to and receive from our business customers indemnities relating to damages caused or sustained by us in connection with certain of our operations. Our customers’ changing views on risk allocation could cause us to accept greater risk to win new business or could result in us losing business if we are not prepared to take such risks. To the extent that we accept such additional risk, and seek to insure against it, our insurance premiums could rise.
Unfavorable general economic conditions could negatively impact our operating results and financial condition.
Unfavorable general economic conditions, including unstable economic and credit markets, could negatively affect our business. Worldwide economic growth has been sluggish since 2008, and many experts believe that a confluence of global factors may result in a prolonged period of economic stagnation, slow growth or economic uncertainty. While it is difficult to predict the ultimate impact of these general economic conditions, they could adversely affect demand for some of our products and services and could cause customers to shift to lower priced products and services or to delay or forego purchases of our products and services. These conditions impact, in particular, our ability to sell discretionary products or services to business customers that are under pressure to reduce costs or to governmental customers that have suffered substantial budget cuts in recent years. Any one or more of these circumstances could continue to depress our revenues. Also, our customers may encounter financial hardships or may not be able to obtain adequate access to credit, which could negatively impact their ability to make timely payments to us. In addition, as discussed further below, unstable economic and credit markets may preclude us from refinancing maturing debt at terms that are as favorable as those from which we previously benefited, at terms that are acceptable to us, or at all. For these reasons, among others, if current economic conditions persist or decline, our operating results, financial condition, and liquidity could be adversely affected.
For additional information about our business and operations, see Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Risks Relating to Legal and Regulatory Matters
We operate in a highly regulated industry and are therefore exposed to restrictions on our operations and a variety of claims relating to such regulation.
General. We are subject to significant regulation by, among others, (i) the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), which regulates interstate communications, (ii) state utility commissions, which regulate intrastate communications, and (iii) various foreign governments and international bodies, which regulate our international operations. Generally, we must obtain and maintain certificates of authority or licenses from these bodies in most territories where we offer regulated services. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in obtaining or retaining all licenses necessary to carry out our business plan, and, even if we are, the prescribed service standards and conditions imposed on us in connection with obtaining or acquiring control of these licenses may impose on us substantial costs and limitations. We are also subject to numerous requirements and interpretations under various international, federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations, which are quite detailed and occasionally in conflict with each other. Accordingly, we cannot ensure that we are always considered to be in compliance with all these requirements at any single point in time. The agencies responsible for the enforcement of these laws, rules and regulations may initiate inquiries or actions based on customer complaints or on their own initiative. Even if we are ultimately found to have complied with applicable regulations, such actions or inquiries could create adverse publicity that negatively impacts our business.
Regulation of the telecommunications industry continues to change, and the regulatory environment varies substantially from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. A substantial portion of our local voice services revenue remains subject to FCC and state utility commission pricing regulation, which periodically exposes us to pricing or earnings disputes and could expose us to unanticipated price declines. Interexchange carriers have filed complaints in various forums requesting reductions in our access rates. In addition, several long distance providers are disputing or refusing to pay amounts owed to us for carrying Voice over Internet Protocol ("VoIP") traffic, or traffic they claim to be VoIP traffic. Similarly, some carriers are refusing to pay access charges for certain calls between mobile and wireline devices routed through an interexchange carrier. There can be no assurance that future regulatory, judicial or legislative activities will not have a material adverse effect on our operations, or that regulators or third parties will not raise material issues with regard to our compliance or noncompliance with applicable regulations.
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Risks associated with recent changes in regulation. Historically, our financial performance has been substantially impacted by various aspects of federal regulation, including our receipt in the past of significant universal service payments designed to promote rural telephony. In October 2011, the FCC adopted the Connect America and Intercarrier Compensation Reform order ("the 2011 order") intended to comprehensively reform the existing regulatory regime to focus support on networks capable of providing new technologies, including VoIP and other broadband services, and re-direct federal universal service funding to foster nationwide voice and broadband infrastructure. The 2011 order provides for a multi-year transition as intercarrier compensation charges are reduced, federal universal service funding is explicitly targeted to broadband deployment, and subscriber line charges paid by end-user customers are gradually increased. These changes have, among other things, fundamentally altered the manner in which federal subsidies are calculated and disbursed to us (including terminating substantially all of the old universal service payments paid to us under predecessor support programs), and have substantially increased the pace of reductions in the amount of switched access revenues we receive from our wholesale customers. We expect our participation in the FCC's CAF Phase 2 support program will significantly impact our financial results and capital expenditures in the coming years. For more information, see "Regulation" in Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Item 2 of Part I of this report.
Although the primary judicial challenges to the 2011 order have been resolved in the FCC's favor, petitions asking that the FCC reconsider certain aspects of the 2011 order remain pending and, as a result, future judicial challenges on related issues remain possible. Such proceedings could still cause parts of the 2011 order to be altered or delayed. In addition, based on the outcome of the FCC proceedings, various state commissions may consider changes to their rates and support programs. Moreover, FCC proceedings relating to implementation of the order remain pending. For these and other reasons, we cannot predict the ultimate impact of these proceedings at this time.
In addition, during the last few years Congress or the FCC has initiated various other changes, including various broadband and Internet regulation initiatives including “network neutrality” regulations (as discussed further below) and actions that will restrict our ability to discontinue or reduce certain services, even if unprofitable. In second quarter of 2016, the FCC concluded its special access tariff investigation and initiated a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ("NPRM") to consider changes in Business Data Services ("BDS") regulation. The results of the special access tariff investigation should not have a material impact on us. Several rules changes are being evaluated in the Business Data Services NPRM that may or may not have a material adverse impact on our financial results. The FCC is considering redefining which markets are subject to BDS regulation, broadband speed thresholds that trigger BDS regulation and potential productivity factors that may be limited to specific services or geographies. Given the inextricably intertwined nature of the issues under review in the BDS rulemaking, we will be unable to determine the NPRM’s impact until a final FCC order is issued. The FCC has signaled its desire to issue a BDS order by year end 2016. Any of these recent or pending initiatives could adversely affect our operations or financial results. Moreover, many of the FCC’s regulations adopted in recent years remain subject to judicial review and additional rulemakings, thus increasing the difficulty of determining the ultimate impact of these changes on us and our competitors.
Certain states have recently taken steps that could reduce the amount of their universal service support payments to incumbent local exchange companies. If these trends continue, we would suffer a reduction in our revenues from state support programs.
Risks of higher costs. Regulations continue to create significant operating and capital costs for us. Challenges to our tariffs by regulators or third parties or delays in obtaining certifications and regulatory approvals could cause us to incur substantial legal and administrative expenses, and, if successful, such challenges could adversely affect the rates that we are able to charge our customers.
Our business also may be impacted by legislation and regulation imposing new or greater obligations related to regulations or laws related to regulating broadband services, storing records, bolstering homeland security or cyber security, increasing disaster recovery requirements, minimizing environmental impacts, enhancing privacy, restricting data collection, protecting intellectual property rights of third parties, or addressing other issues that impact our business, including (i) the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, which requires communications carriers to ensure that their equipment, facilities, and services are able to facilitate authorized electronic surveillance, and (ii) the USA Freedom Act, which requires communication companies to store records of communications of their customers. We expect our compliance costs to increase if future laws or regulations continue to increase our obligations. In addition, increased regulation of our suppliers could increase our costs.
Increased risks of fines. We have recently paid certain regulatory fines associated with network or service outages, particularly with respect to outages impacting the availability of emergency - 911 services. We believe that regulators are now pursuing higher fines than in the past for these types of incidents, and expect this trend to continue.
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Risks of reduced flexibility. As a diversified full service incumbent local exchange carrier in most of our key markets, we have traditionally been subject to significant regulation that does not apply to many of our competitors. This regulation in many instances restricts our ability to change rates, to compete and to respond rapidly to changing industry conditions. As our business becomes increasingly competitive, regulatory disparities between us and our competitors could impede our ability to compete.
Risks posed by other regulations. All of our operations are also subject to a variety of environmental, safety, health and other governmental regulations. We monitor our compliance with federal, state and local regulations governing the management, discharge and disposal of hazardous and environmentally sensitive materials. Although we believe that we are in compliance with these regulations in all material respects, our management, discharge or disposal of hazardous and environmentally sensitive materials might expose us to claims or actions that could potentially have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and operating results.
Our participation in the FCC's Connect America Fund ("CAF") Phase 2 support program poses certain risks.
Our participation in the CAF Phase 2 support program subjects us to certain financial risks. If we fail to attain certain specified infrastructure buildout requirements, the FCC could withhold future CAF support payments until these shortcomings are rectified. In addition, if we are not in compliance with FCC measures at the end of the six-year CAF Phase 2 period, we will have 12 months to attain full compliance. If we are not in full compliance after the additional 12 months, we would incur a penalty equal to 1.89 times the average amount of support per location received in the state over the six-year term, plus a potential penalty of 10% of the total CAF Phase 2 support over the six-year term for the state. The amount of these penalties could be material. To comply with the FCC's buildout requirements, we believe we will need to dedicate a substantial portion of our future capital expenditure budget to the construction of new infrastructure. The CAF-related expenditures could reduce the amount of funds we are willing or able to allocate to other initiatives or projects.
"Open Internet" regulation could limit our ability to operate our broadband business profitably and to manage our broadband facilities efficiently.
In order to continue to provide quality broadband service at attractive prices, we believe we need the continued flexibility to respond to changing consumer demands, to manage bandwidth usage efficiently for the benefit of all customers and to invest in our networks. In 2015, the FCC adopted new regulations that regulate broadband services as a public utility under Title II of the Communications Act. Several companies, including us, have initiated judicial actions challenging the new regulations, which remain pending. The ultimate impact of the new regulations will depend on several factors, including the results of pending litigation and the manner in which the new regulations are implemented and enforced. Although it is premature for us to determine the ultimate impact of the new regulations upon our operations, we currently anticipate that the proposed rules could hamper our ability to operate our data networks efficiently, restrict our ability to implement network management practices necessary to ensure quality service, increase the cost of network extensions and upgrades, and otherwise negatively impact our current operations. It is possible that Congress, the FCC or the courts could take further action in the future to modify regulations affecting the provision of broadband Internet services.
We may be liable for the material that content providers distribute over our network.
Although we believe our liability for third party information stored on or transmitted through our networks is limited, the liability of private network operators is impacted both by changing technology and evolving legal principles that remain unsettled in many jurisdictions. As a private network provider, we could be exposed to legal claims relating to third party content stored or transmitted on our networks. Such claims could involve, among others, allegations of defamation, invasion of privacy, copyright infringement, or aiding and abetting restricted activities such as online gambling or pornography. If we decide to implement additional measures to reduce our exposure to these risks, or if we are required to defend ourselves against these kinds of claims, our operations and financial results could be negatively affected.
Any adverse outcome in any material litigation of CenturyLink or its affiliates could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and operating results, on the trading price of our debt securities and on our ability to access the capital markets.
There are several material proceedings pending against CenturyLink and its affiliates, as described in Note 8—Commitments and Contingencies in Item 1 of Part I of CenturyLink's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. Depending on their outcome, any of these matters could have a material adverse effect on our financial position or operating results. We can give you no assurances as to the impact of these matters on our operating results or financial condition.
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We are subject to franchising requirements that could impede our expansion opportunities or result in potential fines or penalties.
We may be required to obtain from municipal authorities operating franchises to install or expand certain facilities related to our fiber transport operations, our competitive local exchange carrier operations, and our facilities-based video services. Some of these franchises may require us to pay franchise fees. Many of our franchise agreements have compliance obligations and failure to comply may result in fines or penalties. In some cases, certain franchise requirements could delay us in expanding our operations or increase the costs of providing these services.
We are exposed to risks arising out of recent legislation affecting U.S. public companies.
Changing laws, regulations and standards relating to corporate governance and public disclosure, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and related regulations implemented thereunder, are increasing our legal and financial compliance costs and making some activities more time consuming. Any failure to successfully or timely complete annual assessments of our internal controls required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act could subject us to sanctions or investigation by regulatory authorities. Any such action could adversely affect our financial results or our reputation with investors, lenders or others.
Changes in any of the above-described laws or regulations may limit our ability to plan, and could subject us to further costs or constraints.
From time to time, the laws or regulations governing us or our customers, or the government's policy of enforcing those laws or regulations, have changed frequently and materially. The variability of these laws could hamper the ability of us and our customers to plan for the future or establish long-term strategies. Moreover, future changes in these laws or regulations could further increase our operating or compliance costs, or further restrict our operational flexibility, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, competitive position, financial condition or prospects.
For a more thorough discussion of the regulatory issues that may affect our business, see "Regulation" in Item 1 of Part I of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015.
Risks Affecting Our Liquidity and Capital Resources
CenturyLink's and our high debt levels expose us to a broad range of risks.
Our ultimate parent, CenturyLink, and we continue to carry significant debt. As of June 30, 2016, the aggregate principal amount of our consolidated long-term debt excluding unamortized premiums, net, and unamortized debt issuance costs, was approximately $7.357 billion (excluding our note payable - affiliate of $884 million), which was included in CenturyLink's consolidated long-term debt of approximately $19.940 billion as of that date. As of the date of this report, approximately $1.946 billion aggregate principal amount of CenturyLink's consolidated debt securities (excluding capital lease and other obligations), which includes approximately $500 million of our debt securities, is scheduled to mature prior to June 30, 2019. While we currently believe that CenturyLink and we will have the financial resources to meet or refinance our obligations when they come due, we cannot fully anticipate our future performance or financial condition, the future condition of CenturyLink, the credit markets or the economy generally. We may incur unexpected expenses or liabilities, and we may have limited access to financing.
Our significant levels of debt can adversely affect us in several other respects, including:
| • | limiting our ability to obtain additional financing for working capital, capital expenditures, refinancings or other general corporate purposes, particularly if, as discussed further in the risk factor disclosure below, (i) the ratings assigned to our debt securities by nationally recognized credit rating organizations are revised downward or (ii) we seek capital during periods of turbulent or unsettled market conditions; |

| • | requiring us to dedicate a substantial portion of our cash flow from operations to the payment of interest and principal on our debt, thereby reducing the funds available to us for other purposes, including acquisitions, capital expenditures, strategic initiatives, dividends; |

| • | hindering our ability to capitalize on business opportunities and to plan for or react to changing market, industry, competitive or economic conditions; |

| • | increasing our future borrowing costs; |

| • | increasing the risk that third parties will be unwilling or unable to engage in hedging or other financial or commercial arrangements with us; |

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| • | making us more vulnerable to economic or industry downturns, including interest rate increases; |

| • | placing us at a competitive disadvantage compared to less leveraged competitors; |

| • | increasing the risk that we will need to sell assets, possibly on unfavorable terms, or take other unfavorable actions to meet payment obligations; or |

| • | increasing the risk that we may not meet the financial covenants contained in our debt agreements or timely make all required debt payments. |

The effects of each of these factors could be intensified if we increase our borrowings.
We expect to periodically require financing to meet our debt obligations as they come due. Due to the unstable economy and credit markets, we may not be able to refinance maturing debt at terms that are as favorable as those from which we previously benefited, at terms that are acceptable to us or at all. See below “Risk Factors—Risks Affecting our Liquidity and Capital Resources—CenturyLink and we plan to access the public debt markets, and we cannot assure you that these markets will remain free of disruptions.”
We may also need to obtain additional financing or capital, or to investigate other methods to generate cash (such as further cost reductions or the sale of assets) under a variety of other circumstances, including if revenues and cash provided by operations decline, if economic conditions weaken, if competitive pressures increase, if regulatory requirements change, if CenturyLink is required to contribute a material amount of cash to its pension plans, if CenturyLink is required to begin to pay other post-retirement benefits significantly earlier than is anticipated, or if CenturyLink becomes subject to significant judgments or settlements in one or more of the matters discussed in Note 5—Commitments and Contingencies to our consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of Part I of this report and Note 8—Commitments and Contingencies to the consolidated financial statements in Item 1 of Part I of CenturyLink's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2016. For all the reasons mentioned above, we can give no assurance that additional financing for any of these purposes will be available on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all.
Certain of CenturyLink's and our debt instruments have cross payment default or cross acceleration provisions. When present, these provisions could have a wider impact on liquidity than might otherwise arise from a default or acceleration of a single debt instrument. Any such event could adversely affect our ability to conduct business or access the capital markets and could adversely impact our credit ratings. See "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Liquidity and Capital Resources" in CenturyLink's quarterly and annual reports filed with the SEC for additional information about CenturyLink's indebtedness.
In addition, our ability to borrow funds in the future will depend in part on the satisfaction of the covenants in our term loan and other debt instruments. If we are unable to satisfy the covenants contained in those instruments, or are unable to generate cash sufficient to make required debt payments, the parties to whom we are indebted could accelerate the maturity of some or all of our outstanding indebtedness.
As noted above, if we are unable to make required debt payments or refinance our debt, we would likely have to consider other options, such as selling assets, issuing additional securities, cutting costs or otherwise reducing our cash requirements, or negotiating with our lenders to restructure our applicable debt. The indentures governing our senior notes may restrict, or market or business conditions may limit, our ability to do some of these things on favorable terms, or at all.
Our debt agreements and the debt agreements of CenturyLink and its other subsidiaries allow us to incur significantly more debt, which could exacerbate the other risks described in this report.
The terms of our debt instruments and the debt instruments of CenturyLink and its other subsidiaries permit us to incur additional indebtedness. Additional debt may be necessary for many reasons, including those discussed above. Incremental borrowings that impose additional financial risks could exacerbate the other risks described in this report.
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Any downgrade in our credit ratings could limit our ability to obtain future financing, increase our borrowing costs and adversely affect the market price of our existing debt securities or otherwise impair our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As noted above in Item 2 of Part I of this report, our long-term debt is currently rated BBB- by Standard and Poor's Ratings Services and BBB- by Fitch Ratings, (i) both of which are the lowest investment grade ratings issued by each of these agencies and (ii) rated Ba1 by Moody's Investors Services, which is a non-investment grade rating. If either Standard and Poor's Rating Services or Fitch Ratings assigned us a non-investment grade, we would no longer be viewed as an "investment grade" issuer and would lose the benefits attendant thereto. Credit rating agencies continually review their ratings for the companies that they follow, including us. Credit rating agencies also evaluate the industries in which we operate as a whole and may change their credit rating for us based on their overall view of such industries. There can be no assurance that any rating assigned to any of these debt securities will remain in effect for any given period of time or that any such ratings will not be lowered, suspended or withdrawn entirely by a rating agency if, in that rating agency's judgment, circumstances so warrant. A downgrade of our credit ratings could adversely affect the market price of some or all of our outstanding debt securities, limit our access to the capital markets or otherwise adversely affect the availability of other new financing on favorable terms, if at all, trigger the application of restrictive covenants in certain of our debt agreements or result in new or more restrictive covenants in agreements governing the terms of any future indebtedness that we may incur, increase our cost of borrowing, and impair our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our business requires us to incur substantial capital and operating expenses, which reduce our available free cash flow.
Our business is capital intensive, and we anticipate that our capital requirements will continue to be significant in the coming years. As noted elsewhere in this report, we committed to spend substantial sums to construct infrastructure in connection with our participation in the FCC's CAF Phase 2 program. In addition, as discussed further under "Risk Factors—Risks Affecting Our Business—Increases in broadband usage may cause network capacity limitations, resulting in service disruptions, reduced capacity or slower transmission speeds for our customers," increased bandwidth consumption by consumers and businesses has placed increased demands on the transmission capacity of our networks. If we determine that our networks must be expanded to handle these increased demands or as needed to meet CAF Phase 2 infrastructure requirements, we may determine that substantial additional capital expenditures are required, even though there is no assurance that the return on our investment will be satisfactory. In addition, many of our growth and modernization initiatives are capital intensive and changes in technology could require further spending. In addition to investing in expanded networks, new products or new technologies, we must from time to time invest capital to (i) replace some of our aging equipment that supports many of our legacy services that are experiencing revenue declines or (ii) convert older systems to simplify and modernize our network. While we believe that our planned level of capital expenditures will meet both our maintenance and core growth requirements, this may not be the case if demands on our network continue to accelerate or other circumstances underlying our expectations change. Increased spending could, among other things, adversely affect our operating margins, cash flows, results of operations and financial position.
Similarly, we continue to anticipate incurring substantial operating expenses to support our incumbent services and growth initiatives. Although we have successfully reduced certain of our operating expenses over the past few years, we may be unable to further reduce these costs, even if revenues in some of our lines of business are decreasing. If so, our operating margins will be adversely impacted.
Adverse changes in the value of assets or obligations associated with CenturyLink's qualified pension plan could negatively impact CenturyLink's liquidity, which may in turn affect our business and liquidity.
A substantial amount of our employees participate in a qualified pension plan sponsored by CenturyLink that has assumed the obligations under QCII's predecessor pension plan.
The funded status of CenturyLink's qualified pension plan is the difference between the value of the plan's assets and the benefit obligation. The accounting unfunded status of CenturyLink's qualified pension plan was $2.215 billion as of December 31, 2015. Adverse changes in interest rates or market conditions, among other assumptions and factors, could cause a significant increase in CenturyLink's benefit obligation or a significant decrease in the value of the plan's assets. These adverse changes could require CenturyLink to contribute a material amount of cash to its pension plan or could accelerate the timing of required cash payments. The amounts contributed by us through CenturyLink are not segregated or restricted and may be used to provide benefits to employees of CenturyLink's other subsidiaries. Based on current laws and circumstances, CenturyLink does not expect it will be required to make a contribution to its plan in 2016. The actual amount of required contributions to its plan in 2017 and beyond will depend on earnings on plan investments, prevailing interest and discount rates, demographic experience, changes in plan benefits and changes in funding laws and regulations. Any future material cash contributions could have a negative impact on CenturyLink's liquidity by reducing their cash flows, which in turn could affect our liquidity.
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CenturyLink and we plan to access the public debt markets, and we cannot assure you that these markets will remain free of disruptions.
CenturyLink and we have a significant amount of indebtedness that we both intend to refinance over the next several years, principally we expect through the issuance of debt securities of CenturyLink, us or both. CenturyLink's and our ability to arrange additional financing will depend on, among other factors, the financial position, performance, and credit ratings of CenturyLink and QC, as well as prevailing market conditions and other factors beyond its or our control. Prevailing market conditions could be adversely affected by the ongoing disruptions in domestic or overseas sovereign or corporate debt markets, contractions or limited growth in the economy or other similar adverse economic developments in the U.S. or abroad. Instability in the global financial markets has from time to time resulted in periodic volatility in the capital markets. This volatility could limit CenturyLink's and our access to the credit markets, leading to higher borrowing costs or, in some cases, the inability to obtain financing on terms that are acceptable to it, or at all. Any such failure to obtain additional financing could jeopardize its and our ability to repay, refinance or reduce its or our debt obligations.
Other Risks
We regularly transfer our cash to CenturyLink, which exposes us to certain risks.
Under our cash management arrangement with CenturyLink, we regularly transfer our cash to CenturyLink, which we recognize on our consolidated balance sheets as advances to affiliates. Although CenturyLink periodically repays these advances to fund our cash requirements throughout the year, at any given point in time CenturyLink may owe us a substantial sum under this arrangement. Accordingly, developments that adversely impact CenturyLink could adversely impact our ability to collect these advances.
If conditions or assumptions differ from the judgments, assumptions or estimates used in our critical accounting policies, our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures could be materially affected.
The preparation of financial statements and related disclosures in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles requires management to make judgments, assumptions and estimates that affect the amounts reported in our consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes. Our critical accounting policies, which are described in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates" in Item 7 of Part II of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015, describe those significant accounting policies and methods used in the preparation of our consolidated financial statements that are considered "critical" because they require judgments, assumptions and estimates that materially impact our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures. As a result, if future events or assumptions differ significantly from the judgments, assumptions and estimates in our critical accounting policies, these events or assumptions could have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures.
Lapses in disclosure controls and procedures or internal control over financial reporting could materially and adversely affect our operations, profitability or reputation.
There can be no assurance that our disclosure controls and procedures will be effective in the future or that we will not experience a material weakness or significant deficiency in internal control over financial reporting. Any such lapses or deficiencies may materially and adversely affect our business, operating results or financial condition, restrict our ability to access the capital markets, require us to expend significant resources to correct the lapses or deficiencies, expose us to regulatory or legal proceedings, including litigation brought by private individuals, subject us to fines, penalties or judgments, harm our reputation, or otherwise cause a decline in investor confidence.
We have a significant amount of goodwill, customer relationships and other intangible assets on our consolidated balance sheet. If our goodwill or other intangible assets become impaired, we may be required to record a significant charge to earnings and reduce our stockholders' equity.
As of June 30, 2016, approximately 57% of our total consolidated assets reflected on the consolidated balance sheet included in this report consisted of goodwill, customer relationships and other intangible assets. Under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, most of these intangible assets must be tested for impairment on an annual basis or more frequently whenever events or circumstances indicate that their carrying value may not be recoverable. From time to time, our affiliates or predecessors have recorded large non-cash charges to earnings in connection with required reductions of the value of their intangible assets. If our intangible assets are determined to be impaired in the future, we may similarly be required to record significant, non-cash charges to earnings during the period in which the impairment is determined to have occurred.
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Tax audits or changes in tax laws could adversely affect us.
For periods after the April 1, 2011 closing of CenturyLink's acquisition of QCII, we are included in the consolidated federal income tax return of CenturyLink. As such, we could be severally liable for tax examinations and adjustments attributable to other members of the QCII or CenturyLink affiliated groups, as applicable. Significant taxpayers (such as QCII for periods prior to the CenturyLink acquisition and CenturyLink for periods after the CenturyLink acquisition) are subject to frequent and regular audits by the Internal Revenue Service as well as state and local tax authorities. These audits could subject us to tax liabilities if adverse positions are taken by these tax authorities.
Tax sharing agreements have been executed between QCII and previous affiliates, and QCII believes the liabilities, if any, arising from adjustments to previously filed returns would be borne by the affiliated group member determined to have a deficiency under the terms and conditions of such agreements and applicable tax law. We have not generally provided reserves for liabilities attributable to former affiliated companies or for claims they have asserted or may assert against us.
We believe that we have adequately provided for tax contingencies. However, CenturyLink's or QCII's tax audits and examinations may result in tax liabilities that differ materially from those that we have recognized in our consolidated financial statements. Because the ultimate outcomes of all of these matters are uncertain, we can give no assurance as to whether an adverse result from one or more of them will have a material effect on our financial results.
Legislators and regulators at all levels of government may from time to time change existing tax laws or regulations or enact new laws or regulations that could negatively impact our operating results or financial condition.
For information on risk faced by CenturyLink that could weaken its financial position (and thereby indirectly impact us), see the risk factor disclosures set forth in CenturyLink's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC.
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ITEM 6. EXHIBITS
| ExhibitNumber | Description |
| 3.1 | Amended and restated Articles of Incorporation of Qwest Corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 of Qwest Corporation's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2013 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 13, 2013). |
| 3.2 | Articles of Amendment to the Articles of Incorporation of Qwest Corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.1 of Qwest Corporation's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2000 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 11, 2000). |
| 3.3 | Amended and Restated Bylaws of Qwest Corporation (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 3.3 of Qwest Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 13, 2004). |
| 4.1 | Indenture, dated as of April 15, 1990, by and between The Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company (currently named Qwest Corporation) and The First National Bank of Chicago (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.2 of Qwest Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 13, 2004). |
| a. | First Supplemental Indenture, dated as of April 16, 1991, by and between U S WEST Communications, Inc. (currently named Qwest Corporation) and The First National Bank of Chicago (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.3 of Qwest Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 13, 2004). |
| 4.2 | Indenture, dated as of April 15, 1990, by and between Northwestern Bell Telephone Company (predecessor to Qwest Corporation) and The First National Bank of Chicago (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.5(b) of CenturyLink, Inc.'s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended March 31, 2012 (File No. 001-07784) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 10, 2012). |
| a. | First Supplemental Indenture, dated as of April 16, 1991, by and between U S WEST Communications, Inc. (currently named Qwest Corporation) and The First National Bank of Chicago (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.3 of Qwest Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2002 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 13, 2004). |
| 4.3 | Indenture, dated as of October 15, 1999, by and between U S West Communications, Inc. (currently named Qwest Corporation) and Bank One Trust Company, N.A., as trustee (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4(b) of Qwest Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 3, 2000). |
| a. | Fifth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of May 16, 2007, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 of Qwest Corporation's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 18, 2007). |
| b. | Seventh Supplemental Indenture, dated as of June 8, 2011, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.8 of Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 7, 2011). |
| c. | Eighth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of September 21, 2011, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.9 of Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 20, 2011). |
| d. | Ninth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of October 4, 2011, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 of Qwest Corporation's Current Report on Form 8-K (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on October 4, 2011). |

_______________________________________________________________________________
| (1) | Certain of the items in Sections 4.1 through 4.3 (j) omit supplemental indentures or other instruments governing debt that has been retired, or (ii) refer to trustees who may have been replaced, acquired or affected by similar changes. In accordance with Item 601(b) (4) (iii) (A) of Regulation S-K, copies of certain instruments defining the rights of holders of certain of our long-term debt are not filed herewith. Pursuant to this registration, we hereby agree to furnish a copy of any such instrument to the SEC upon request. |

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| ExhibitNumber | Description |
| e | Tenth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of April 2, 2012, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30, 2012). |
| f. | Eleventh Supplemental Indenture, dated as of June 25, 2012, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 22, 2012). |
| g | Twelfth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of May 23, 2013, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.13 of Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 22, 2013). |
| h. | Thirteenth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of September 29, 2014, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.14 of Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 26, 2014). |
| i. | Fourteenth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of September 21, 2015, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.15 of Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 21, 2015). |
| j. | Fifteenth Supplemental Indenture, dated as of January 29, 2016, by and between Qwest Corporation and U.S. Bank National Association (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.16 of Qwest Corporation's Form 8-A (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 29, 2016). |
| 4.4 | Revolving Promissory Note, dated as of April 18, 2012, pursuant to which Qwest Corporation may borrow from an affiliate of CenturyLink, Inc. up to $1.0 billion on a revolving basis (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.7(b) of CenturyLink, Inc.'s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended June 30, 2012 (File No 001-07784) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 9, 2012). |
| 4.5 | Credit Agreement, dated as of February 20, 2015, by and among Qwest Corporation, the several lenders from time to time parties thereto, and CoBank, ACB, as administrative agent (incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.5 of Qwest Corporation's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2014 (File No. 001-03040) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 27, 2015). |
| 12* | Calculation of Ratio of Earnings to Fixed Charges. |
| 31.1* | Certification of the Chief Executive Officer of CenturyLink, Inc. pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. |
| 31.2* | Certification of the Chief Financial Officer of CenturyLink, Inc. pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. |
| 32* | Certification of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of CenturyLink, Inc. pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. |
| 101* | Financial statements from the Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q of Qwest Corporation for the period ended June 30, 2016, formatted in XBRL: (i) the Consolidated Statements of Operations, (ii) the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income, (iii) the Consolidated Balance Sheets, (iv) the Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, (v) the Consolidated Statements of Stockholder's Equity and (vi) the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements. |

_______________________________________________________________________________
| * | Exhibit filed herewith. |

43
SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized on August 5, 2016.
| QWEST CORPORATION |
| By: | /s/ DAVID D. COLE |
| David D. ColeExecutive Vice President, Controller and Operations Support (Chief Accounting Officer) |

44

Question: What is the total expected penalty per state if the regulatory company decides to implement penalties due to non-compliance with FCC measures? This includes both the end-of-period penalty and potential additional penalty, assuming the organization received $5000 support per location over the six-year term and a total CAF Phase 2 support of $2,000,000 over the six-year term for the state.

Python solution:
def solution():
    #Define variables name and value
    average_support_per_location = 5000
    penalty_per_location_coefficient = 1.89
    total_support = 2000000
    penalty_total_coefficient = 0.1

    #Do math calculation to get the answer
    end_of_period_penalty = average_support_per_location * penalty_per_location_coefficient
    additional_penalty = total_support * penalty_total_coefficient
    total_penalty = int(end_of_period_penalty + additional_penalty)
    return total_penalty


Answer: 209450