QWEST COMMUNICATIONS AWARDED NEW NETWORK SERVICES CONTRACT FROM GSA

Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE:Q) today announced a new contract modification to sell high-speed data services to federal agencies through its Seattle Metropolitan Area Acquisition (MAA) contract. This contract modification is part of the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Technology Service (FTS) Long Distance Crossover program.

With this new contract modification, Qwest can offer federal agencies high-bandwidth, point-to-point private line services – available under this contract are 155 Megabits per second (Mbps), 622 Mbps and 2.5 Gigabits per second connections. Qwest’s digital private line services protect critical data traffic and provide exceptional reliability and accessibility.

“Qwest’s private line services provide the federal government with a competitive source for meeting its increasing bandwidth demand,” said James F. X. Payne, senior vice president and general manager of Qwest’s Government Services Division. “We applaud the GSA for its efforts to make emerging services more readily available to federal agencies.”

With this contract modification, Qwest offers federal agencies two high-bandwidth private line services: Qwest Private Line and QWavesm. Qwest Private Line harnesses the power of Qwest’s SONET backbone architecture while QWave is an optical wavelength service that employs DWDM technology. Both offerings provide a highly reliable, 100 percent digital connection, while Qwest QWave provides an economical alternative to private line services for agencies that want greater control of their broadband services.

GSA Crossover Program
The MAA contracts enable contract holders to expand the portfolio of services they can offer to the federal government. The GSA MAA Crossover program allows MAA providers that have met certain criteria to “cross over” and modify their contracts to offer federal government agencies alternative choices for long-distance and local telecommunications services.

Federal government agencies currently can purchase local telecommunications services under MAA contracts. In January 2002, Qwest became the first such MAA provider to be granted this approval.

Through its crossover program, Qwest offers federal customers a wide range of services, including Web hosting services, network-based virtual private networks (VPN), and now high-bandwidth private line services.

Qwest holds MAA contracts that cover the Denver; Albuquerque, N.M.; Boise, Idaho; Minneapolis; Seattle; and Salt Lake City metro areas.

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