Prior to Qwest's acquisition of the RBOC US West, and unrelated to US West Wireless which became Qwest Wireless, US West operated its own analog cellular service, which merged with AirTouch and was eventually combined with GTE and PrimeCo to become Verizon Wireless [REF].
Due to the slow growth and high expense of maintaining a regional wireless network, Qwest Wireless was converted to an MVNO in 2003-2004.