Of course there are political motivations. (Score 1)

If one were to consider also, that Qwest is the backbone provider of Microsoft's Redmond campus, there may just be a reason in there. (Though then it seems ironic that they ship netscape at all, perhaps, Willie realized you couldn't sign up if it kept crashing??) Either way, for long distance they really are pretty good, though i remember having to dial an 800 number too. Go fig.