Broadwing Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadwing, Inc. (NYSE: BRW), announced the completion of its central ring, the second phase of what the company claims will be the world's first all-optical network. The first phase, the eastern ring, was completed March 1, and is one of three rings that comprise the all-optical core. Declaring to be almost a year ahead of its closest competitor, Broadwing is on schedule to light up an end-to-end, fully optical network which will offer bandwidth that is infinitely scalable, instantly available and incrementally billable.

The ring enhances Broadwing's west coast diversity providing alternate routing and creating added protection for Broadwing customers by the lighting of a new route between Denver and Salt Lake City. The central ring features all-optical switches in Salt Lake City, Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Joplin, Missouri. Broadwing's fully optical portion of its 18,500-mile network, which currently carries revenue traffic, will be officially "lit" upon completion of the western ring.

About Broadwing:

Broadwing Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadwing Inc. (NYSE: BRW), creates data and Internet solutions. For more information, visit www.broadwing.com.