CenturyLink to Discontinue Legacy Service in Former Qwest Territory

**Editor’s Note: One of the most legacy of all legacy services – the desk phone and its survival – is up for a healthy debate here.**

CenturyLink plans to discontinue another legacy service, this time its call event and management signaling service (CEMSS) — which it offers in its legacy Qwest ILEC footprint.

The company is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for permission to shut down the service by June 1 or soon after in Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. There are no longer customers for CEMSS, it said.

CEMSS is just one of many legacy services CenturyLink is seeking to discontinue as customer demand shifts to more advanced services. CenturyLink acquired Qwest Communications in 2011.

Historically, this service allowed a service provider to develop and deploy an application that interacts with its end-user’s plain old telephone service (POTS) lines. It offered flexibility in the design of the application and the manner of interaction.

At the time of its introduction in 2007, CEMSS was classified as a basic service element.