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ESnet Announces Contract to Upgrade Connectivity to Brookhaven, Oak Ridge National Labs

September 27, 2004

DENVER, September 27, 2004 — Qwest Communications International Inc. will upgrade network connectivity into two U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) sites on the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). Qwest’s continued work on ESnet is part of a seven-year contract, which began in 2000 and has a potential value of more than $80 million.

Under the contract, Qwest will increase ESnet’s bandwidth by providing an OC-48 (2.56 Gbps) local access connection to the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, New York, and to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Funded primarily by the DOE Office of Science, ESnet is managed by the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. ESnet operates a backbone network connecting more than 35 DOE research sites.

“Scientists around the world are increasingly dependent on reliable, high bandwidth connections, whether they are using network resources to collaborate or are participating in experiments yielding terabytes of data,” said William Johnston, ESnet manager at Berkeley Lab. “This upgraded bandwidth, along with our proven reliability, is critical to advancing scientific research within the Department of Energy community and with its university and international research and education collaborations.”

The upgrades will enable scientists to take better advantage of the 2.5G/10G ESnet backbone. ESnet currently has a six-node optical fiber backbone network, much of which was upgraded in 2003 to 10 Gigabits per second through Qwest’s Qwave services, a suite of fully managed, all-optical, high-capacity private line services. Qwest also is providing local access to the Oak Ridge facility.

Qwest continues to meet the Department of Energy’s increasing bandwidth needs, which have doubled each year since the inception of ESnet in 1985.  

“Qwest is pleased to continue its commitment to the academic and research communities through its contract with the Department of Energy,” said James F.X. Payne, senior vice president of Qwest’s government services division. “Qwest’s network service contributions help to ensure that ESnet’s reliable and robust service provides advanced networking and communications support to the scientific research community.”

Note: This is based on a news release issued by Qwest Communications International Inc.