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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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If you're a Qwest mobile phone customer, count on a lot of change in the next couple of months.
Qwest is ending its longtime association with Sprint and hooking up with Verizon to provide cell phone service to Qwest customers. Qwest wireless calls now are handled on Sprint's cell network. Beginning in mid-summer, those calls will be handled on Verizon's network for Qwest customers who have arranged to move their service.
Just how the transition will happen is still developing, but the change has great possibilities for improving selection and service, but also great possibilities for chaos if the transition is not handled smoothly.
"Basically, we don't have many details yet," said Dana Dyksterhuis, a local Qwest spokeswoman.
"Our customers will learn more by sometime this summer," she said.
The two companies, naturally, are touting the change as a positive development. The new association with Verizon will give Qwest customers access to a greater variety of high-tech phones and what the two companies say will be a more reliable network.
But unclear is how much hassle the change will mean for customers.
Will Qwest users have to get new phones? Yes, said Dyksterhuis. Verizon will provide customers with a new phone comparable to the one they have now at no charge although it may be necessary for customers to sign up for another two-year commitment. Upgraded phones will cost extra.
Will the existing time plans remain in place? The Qwest spokeswoman couldn't say.
If the Verizon plan is more expensive for the same number of minutes, can I cancel without paying a penalty? That too is undetermined.
If I don't move to Qwest/Verizon from Qwest/Sprint, what happens when Qwest's contract with Sprint to provide service ends early next year? Again, Qwest said those details are still being worked out. She said Qwest wants to make sure that its customers are treated right.
If Qwest ends my service before the end of our 2-year contract, will they owe me the $200 or so penalty they'd ask me to pay if I terminated my relationship with them before the contract expired? No answer there yet either.
