Broadwing Opens Industry's First Optical Media Center; First of Its Kind, All-Optical Network Unleashes Power of Streaming Media and Rich Content.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2001

Broadwing Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadwing Inc. (NYSE:BRW), today announced another industry milestone with the opening of its first Optical Media Center in Cincinnati.

Broadwing also announced that it would open three additional optical media centers in Dallas, Santa Clara, CA and New York City by July 1.

Broadwing's Optical Media Centers leverage the power of EMC Corporation's ultra-deep storage technology and Broadwing's intelligent, all-optical switched network to provide the industry's only facilities capable of storing managing, retrieving and transporting high bandwidth applications, streaming media, rich content, and disaster recovery. for the acquisition, management and distribution of rich media.

"Organizations in every industry are looking to migrate their content and applications from an analog world to a digital one," said Tony Tomae, vice president of Internet and data services. "Because Broadwing's network is fully optical, customers have access to liquid bandwidth -- which translates to capacity, speed and availability that makes access on-demand a reality."

Broadwing's Optical Media Centers help customers consolidate and centralize the management of their media assets, cut operational costs and increase efficiencies through streamlining storage, retrieval and delivery, thus, creating speed to market advantages and new revenue opportunities.

"EMC and Broadwing are working closely to help ensure that customers can prepare for the coming explosion of information driven by rich content," said Doron Kempel, vice president and general manager of EMC Corporation's Media Solutions Group. "Organizations and even individuals will have to manage terabytes of information ranging from family medical records to financial documents, photographs and video. Combined with the already rapid growth in business and organizational information, this information boom underlines the importance of robust, reliable information management technology and services."

Optical Media Center services include:

-- Digital Encoding - A service that acquires, captures and encodes media
assets into digital format, which is easily stored, distributed and managed via
Broadwing's hosting and network services.

-- Digital Asset Management - Services that catalog index and annotate
information, which enable a more efficient and less costly search and retrieval
of media assets.

-- Asset Consolidation Solution - A solution that provides a single, secured
location to store media assets, which are protected, backed up and managed from
a single location.

-- Broadcast Consolidation - Services that digitize and deliver a
Broadcaster's music, play lists, commercials, on-air identification
segments and other widely syndicated or re-useable components.

-- E-Learning Delivery - Online educational services that allow companies to
gain efficiencies in training and increased productivity, also known as
distance learning.

-- Streaming Media - Enabling the acquisition, consolidation and distribution
of real-time media and entertainment content without the hassle of
predetermining bandwidth usage.

Broadwing's Optical Media Centers are part of Broadwing's intelligent, optical storage product suite, which provides next-generation products utilizing optical technology throughout its coast-to-coast network. The intelligent, optical services suite includes Optical Media Centers, Optical Private Line and Optical Gigabit Ethernet.

About Broadwing

Broadwing Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadwing Inc. (NYSE:BRW), is the world's first optical network service provider and combines unparalleled customer service with the most advanced and flexible 18,500 mile next-generation fiber optic network and award-winning IP backbone, to create data and internet solutions that are innovative, reliable, and provide businesses a competitive advantage. Broadwing sets the standard for customer accountability with the industry's only Installation Guarantee. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Austin, Texas, with 6,400 employees in 56 sales and service offices across the country, Broadwing can be found on the web at www.broadwing.com.