On Friday Global Crossing said it had granted a waiver to its merger agreement with US West so the company could explore a rival takeover bid from competitor Qwest Communications International, Inc.

Qwest is offering $37.7 billion for US West. Global Crossing also lost its exclusive merger bid for Frontier Corp, the US fifth-largest long-distance company.

Quest is bidding $11.8 billion for Frontier. Global and Qwest are building worldwide networks to carry high-speed Internet traffic and are fighting for the two acquistion targest to secure customers and sales.

Global Crossing is bidding $31.2 billion for US West. The fine print of that agreement shows US West would pay Global Crossing $850 million to break the pact.