Qwest’s Unprecedented Optical Networking Capability to Enable Breakthrough Science Exploration and Discovery August 9, 2001 DENVER, CO - Qwest Communications International Inc., (NYSE: Q) the broadband communications company, today announced that it will partner with four U.S. research institutions the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego; Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill.; and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena to build the world’s most powerful network to support the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Distributed Terascale Facility (DTF) program. The DTF will be the largest, most comprehensive computing infrastructure ever deployed for scientific research. Using its industry-leading wavelength services network, Qwest will provide the ultra high-speed network to interconnect these four research institutions, IBM will offer its geographically distributed Linux servers and Intel will supply its Itanium™ - family processors. The DTF network will consist of four 10 gigabit/second wavelengths for a total network capacity of 40 gigabits/second. The DTF network will be 16 times faster than the fastest high-speed research network available today enough capacity to transfer the entire contents of the world’s publicly accessible Web sites among any of the four DTF sites in only two hours. “This project reinforces Qwest’s commitment to the research community by building on our previous projects, such as our involvement in Internet2 and the Abilene network, the NASA Research and Education Network, and the Energy Sciences Network, as well as the Global Grid Forum, which envisions a platform for worldwide shared computing resources,” said Dr. Wesley Kaplow, chief technology officer of Qwest Government Systems Division. “For instance, Qwest committed $500 million to the Internet2 effort, which connects more than 180 higher-education and laboratory-research institutions and, much like the DTF network, is designed to accelerate the creation of tomorrow’s Internet.” The NSF is a leading indicator of future bandwidth demand, and the launch of this network provides the latest and largest step in bandwidth demand, not unlike the NSFnet, which was the original core of the Internet. The pharmaceutical, automotive, biotechnology and petroleum industries, as well as others, will be able to witness the power of these incredibly high-speed network and computer systems, fueling the demand for network bandwidth to connect their U.S. and worldwide supercomputing systems. “With this network, the nation’s most advanced computers, instruments and data archives will be interconnected with greater capacity than we now have at the largest computer centers. Yet, the resources are in four locations, 2,000 miles apart,” said Dan Reed, director of NCSA and the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance) on behalf of the four DTF partners. “We effectively are improving on the Internet’s elimination of distance and time barriers by making shared access to massive data whether it’s output from a radio telescope or scientific computer simulations a routine endeavor.” “From the earliest days of the Internet, bandwidth within and among local computers has been much greater than among geographic locations. This fact has shaped the architecture of everything from corporate data centers to the World Wide Web,” said Argonne’s Charlie Catlett, architect of the DTF network. “Many of the things scientists have wanted to do over the past several decades have been left untried simply because moving the data around can take days or weeks. This network will reduce that time to minutes or hours, opening up entirely new possibilities.” NSF will provide $53 million to the four DTF institutions in the 2002 fiscal year. DTF will be a distributed facility that will provide scientists with an unprecedented capacity for computing, data analysis and management; high-resolution visualization; and long-distance collaboration. The DTF program and the DTF network will further the mission of NSF’s Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program, which is creating a nationwide computational and information infrastructure to enable breakthrough discoveries in science and engineering. The PACI program includes two partnerships, the Alliance, led by NCSA, and the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), led by SDSC. The DTF network will connect West Coast laboratories at SDSC in San Diego and Caltech in Los Angeles with Illinois laboratories at NCSA in Champaign-Urbana and Argonne in the Chicago area. The network also will provide links to Internet2’s Abilene research network and to research networks worldwide via the StarLight℠ interconnect in Chicago. The DTF network technical deployment and operations team includes participants from all four DTF sites and Qwest, as well as Internet2 and StarLight. The DTF network will use Qwest facilities operating among San Diego, Los Angeles and Chicago. In Illinois, the network will take advantage of I-WIRE (Illinois Wired-Wireless Infrastructure for Research and Education), a fiber optic network funded through Illinois Gov. George Ryan’s “Illinois First” initiative. The I-WIRE optical network will provide the DTF with network capacity and will give Argonne and NCSA additional bandwidth for related network-research initiatives. Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) is a leader in reliable, scalable and secure broadband data, voice and image communications for businesses and consumers. The Qwest Macro Capacity℠ Fiber Network, designed with the newest optical networking equipment for speed and efficiency, spans more than 113,000 miles globally. For more information, please visit the Qwest Web site at www.qwest.com. This release may contain projections and other forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual future events or results. Readers are referred to the documents filed by Qwest with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, including potential fluctuations in quarterly results, volatility of Qwest’s stock price, intense competition in the communications services market, changes in demand for Qwest’s products and services, dependence on new product development and acceleration of the deployment of advanced new services, such as broadband data, wireless and video services, which could require substantial expenditure of financial and other resources in excess of contemplated levels, higher than anticipated employee levels, capital expenditures and operating expenses, rapid and significant changes in technology and markets, adverse changes in the regulatory or legislative environment affecting Qwest’s business and delays in Qwest’s ability to provide interLATA services within its 14-state local service territory, failure to maintain rights of way, and failure to achieve the projected synergies and financial results expected to result from the acquisition of U S WEST timely or at all and difficulties in combining the operations of Qwest and U S WEST. This release may include analysts’ estimates and other information prepared by third parties for which Qwest assumes no responsibility. Qwest undertakes no obligation to review or confirm analysts’ expectations or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. The Qwest logo is a registered trademark of, and CyberCenter is a service mark of, Qwest Communications International Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. Contact: Vince Hancock vince.hancock@qwest.com ph: +1.303.965.6950 Lee Wolfe Investor Contact IR@qwest.com ph: +1.800.567.7296
	web @ startap.net