AT&T exec says AT&T merger with Qwest not imminent

On Wednesday, AT&T's COO Randall Stephenson ended weeks of speculation by saying that AT&T is not planning to buy Qwest any time soon. He said currently AT&T is busy with their planned merger with BellSouth. But don't think that a Qwest merger with AT&T or Verizon is out of the realm of possibility, as he did go on to say that further consolidation in the telecommunications industry is inevitable.