A district court judge granted a temporary restraining order against Qwest Communications International Inc. over the company's ongoing case with SunWest Communications Inc. of Colorado Springs.
In August SunWest sued Qwest (www.qwest.com), formerly doing business in Colorado as US West Inc., for breach of contract and unfair business practices. SunWest (www.sunwest.net) alleges that Qwest breached their interconnection agreement by failing to make payments, and provided poor service to SunWest customers.
In El Paso County District Court Sept. 12, Judge Rebecca Bromley granted a temporary restraining order against Qwest, which now is required to process service feature requests on existing SunWest customers, and was ordered to accept new SunWest customers.
SunWest expects to be able to add several hundred new customers per month as a result of this court ruling, according to CEO and President Dan Potter.
"Winning the temporary restraining order also means that the court rendered an opinion that SunWest has a reasonable probability of success on the merits at trial," Potter said in a statement yesterday.
Potter says that the problems SunWest is having with Qwest are placing a financial hardship on the CLEC. SunWest seeks almost $1.65 million that it says Qwest owes it for access charges, as well as unspecified punitive damages. Qwest executives would not comment.
While the issues are pending before the district court, SunWest has agreed to place money in the court registry to cover switching costs. The two sides head back to court Nov. 21.
