CenturyLink 2004 Annual Report Download - page 7

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advocate an approach that requires
contributions from a broad range of service
providers. We also believe recipients should
have to meet service quality standards and
serve all customers in a service territory.
We believe regulatory and legislative policies
should encourage investment in network
infrastructure. Specifically, we believe that
carriers who make network investments
should be fairly compensated when other
carriers use that network to transmit their
traffic. Any other policy will lead to the long-
term deterioration of what is today the
world’s best communications infrastructure.
We believe that all service providers
should be subject to the same service
standards, have the same pricing flexibility
and otherwise be similarly regulated,
regardless of their mode of service delivery.
It creates an unlevel playing field when light
regulatory obligations are placed on one type
of service provider while another provider of
the same service is burdened with pricing
restrictions, service standards, reporting
obligations and other regulatory commit ments.
Common regulatory plans or policies for
common types of service make sense and
provide a sustainable regulatory model.
Our industry faces numerous other
regulatory issues, but we believe most of
them can be fairly resolved by following
these straightforward, equitable principles.
CenturyTel is actively engaged in these
matters to advocate our principles and to
ensure that regulators and legislators
consider how their policy decisions affect
customers outside major urban areas.
Serving Our Customers and Shareholders
At CenturyTel, we remain focused on serving
our customers and continuing to improve
the customer’s overall experience. We know
that this focus has been the key driver of
CenturyTel’s success through the years, and
we believe continuing to provide quality service
and products to our customers is the key to
increasing shareholder value in the future.
In the years ahead, we expect to continue
driving revenue growth through value-added
bundling of products and services and by
offering additional services to our customers
through the deployment of new technology
over our high-quality advanced networks.
We also anticipate increasing the reach
of our quality fiber transport services to
smaller cities and rural areas as well as to
those larger cities that are important to
our customers.
Additionally, we will look for and evaluate
opportunities as they arise to
expand into
complementary business segments that provide
additional services for our customers and
drive value for our shareholders .
Finally, we will continue to consider strategic
acquisitions using our proven, disciplined
approach to further drive growth in the future.
I believe CenturyTel is well positioned to
face the challenges before us and to
take advantage of growth
opportunities that are
focused toward increasing
shareholder value in the
months and years ahead.
We sincerely appreciate the
continuing support of our
customers , our employees and
you, our shareholders, as we
strive to grow our Company and
remain a leading provider of
integrated communications services
to customers in rural areas and small
to mid-size cities in the United States.
Glen F. Post, III
Chairman and CEO
CENTURYTEL 2004 ANNUAL REPORT