Qwest Communications International Inc. (Denver, CO) and KPN (Amsterdam) announced that KPNQwest, their planned European joint venture, has been awarded its first major contract from DANTE, a non-profit company that plans, builds, and manages advanced network services for the European research community. Under terms of the $50-million, three-year agreement, KPNQwest will provide DANTE with advanced fiber-optic connectivity between nine locations connected to the first two self-healing "EuroRings" and ATM capacity to all 16 countries served by the DANTE Network across Europe. By 2000, KPNQwest plans to construct five additional rings connecting up to 40 major western, central, and eastern European cities.