Yesterday Qwest announced that its deal with Sprint was not profitable enough [1], and now Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg admitted that his company was in talks with Qwest to step in and ink a deal. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the Sprint deal also restricts Qwest from offering the latest handsets available, which is another factor that has led Qwest to seek a new partner (or better deal with Sprint) once the existing deal expires next year.

Instead of buying wholesale minutes from Sprint and reselling them like an MVNO [2], Qwest could earn commission for selling branded Verizon Wireless service.

For more on the potential deal:
- read this article [3] from the WSJ (sub. req.)