Qwest has been shopping their long haul network hoping to fetch somewhere between $2 to $3 billion. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the current bids (subs. req.) are nowhere near that, with a bid or two coming in at less than $1 billion. The bids were due Monday, but the due date has been extended. Conventional wisdom suggests that Qwest will use any sale proceeds to reduce their debt and refocus on the local access business. Some even suggest they may go on an acquisition spree and become a rural access line consolidator. Their current local access footprint stretches across fourteen states. But it all begins with a sale of the long haul network, which apparently isn’t going as planned.