Broadwing Provides The `Dot Com' Solution Companies Are Looking For; Broadwing Doubles IT Consulting Division to Meet Growing Demand for End-to-End Internet Solutions.

Business Editors

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 4, 2000

Broadwing IT Consulting, a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadwing Inc. (NYSE:BRW), today announced the rapid expansion of its services and capabilities to meet the burgeoning demand from customers who want to enable their businesses with e-commerce technologies.

As part of its corporate strategy to enable the Internet age, Broadwing is opening 13 new IT consulting practices within existing sales locations that currently sell transport and data collocation services, bringing the total number of Broadwing IT Consulting locations to 20.

The expansion will enable customers to turn to local Broadwing representatives for a full array of services -- from web application development and systems integration expertise and consulting to voice, data and Internet network services.

Broadwing's IT Consulting expansion reflects the growing demand among Fortune 1000 organizations for more sophisticated services as they incorporate emerging technologies into their business strategies.

"Broadwing continues to move at Internet speed in providing cutting-edge services that give our customers a leg-up on the competition. We are executing solutions while others just talk about them," said Rick Pontin, president and COO of Broadwing Communications. "Access to fast and reliable systems is at the heart of the dot com revolution, and Broadwing IT Consulting is helping enable the revolution. Broadwing's IT consulting and integration services combined with our state-of-the-art network and data collocation centers creates a powerful solution."

Jeff Lackey, president of Broadwing IT Consulting, said, "This expansion makes for a robust suite of services. For example, Broadwing can now design, build, install, integrate, host and manage web-enabled applications for those businesses that want to be e-enabled. This integrated set of services allows our customers to rapidly extend their applications and supporting technologies out to the web with greater speed and efficiency."

Broadwing IT Consulting uses a practical, project methodology to deliver solution-based services including application development and integration, operating system and enterprise server technologies and communication infrastructure platforms.

Current Broadwing IT Consulting practices are located in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Nashville, Dallas, Reston, San Francisco and Chicago. Additional expansion plans include adding operations in Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Denver, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Boston, Orlando, Miami, Houston, Austin, and Atlanta.

"Although the technologies continue to evolve in complexity and capability, the business basics are still the same -- people doing business with people. Our formula for success is simple: Listen and understand the needs of our customers; develop products and provide services that meet those needs; and deliver those products and services better than anybody else in our space. Broadwing possesses all the key pieces of the puzzle to help our customers' dot com their businesses, today." added Lackey.

About Broadwing

Broadwing IT Consulting is a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadwing Inc. Broadwing Inc. (NYSE:BRW) is an integrated communications powerhouse delivering voice, data and Internet solutions to a variety of customers nationwide. Broadwing combines unparalleled customer service with a premier next-generation fiber 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 its first-in-the-industry Installation Guarantee. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio with 6,000 employees in 38 cities, Broadwing can be found on the Web at broadwing.com.