Broadwing Takes Pole Position as Mazda North American Operations' Communications Provider; Broadwing Launches Business Continuity Solution Giving Customers More Reliability

    AUSTIN, Texas--Feb. 10, 2003--The integrated communications leader Broadwing Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Broadwing Inc. , today announced a three-year agreement with Mazda North American Operations to provide Broadwing's MultiConnect and MultiConnect Redirect. Mazda, a leading vehicle manufacturer with more than 700 dealerships in the United States, is using MultiConnect to connect its domestic plants and operations centers around the country.
    By deciding to replace its frame relay network with MultiConnect, a point-to-multipoint private line solution, Mazda can now transmit all operations, accounting, email and other corporate WAN traffic via the Broadwing network, resulting in faster response times for accessing corporate applications, email services, web browsing and an overall more robust connection.
    In addition, Mazda is utilizing Broadwing's MultiConnect Redirect enhancement, which guards against customer premise failures and regional disasters by redirecting all remote T-1s to a predefined secondary host location. This business continuity solution enables recovery of remote wide area network (WAN) locations to a customer's secondary (back-up) host.
    "As we looked at our options, Broadwing offered greater bandwidth, the flexibility to converge multiple types of traffic, including voice, video and data, over a single network, all for a competitive price," said Michael Swancutt, system manager, communications, Mazda North American Operations.
    "As more companies focus on issues of security and business continuity, leaders like Mazda want a seamless backup plan that won't interrupt service for their operations and customers. Broadwing's new enhancement, MultiConnect Redirect, meets those needs and provides a sound communications recovery solution," said Bob Shingler, president, Broadwing Communications.
    MultiConnect provides a distance insensitive, protocol agnostic, secure, point-to-multipoint solution that utilizes Broadwing's all-optical switched network. It is a scalable, highly resilient service designed to connect from fourteen to over 1,000 remote locations seamlessly, for one flat monthly fee. Broadwing's MultiConnect was awarded the 2002 Frost & Sullivan Product Differentiation Innovation Award.
    Mazda North American Operations is responsible for the sales and marketing, customer parts and services support of Mazda vehicles in the United States. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., Mazda North American Operations has more than 700 dealerships nationwide.

    About Broadwing

    Broadwing Inc. is an integrated communications company comprised of Broadwing Communications and Cincinnati Bell. Broadwing Communications leads the industry as the world's first intelligent, all-optical, switched network provider and offers businesses nationwide a competitive advantage by providing data, voice and Internet solutions that are flexible, reliable and innovative on its 18,500-mile optical network and its award-winning IP backbone. Cincinnati Bell is one of the nation's most respected and best performing local exchange and wireless providers with a legacy of unparalleled customer service excellence and financial strength. The company was recently ranked number one in customer satisfaction, for the second year in a row, by J.D. Power and Associates for local residential telephone service and residential long distance among mainstream users and received the number one ranking in wireless customer satisfaction in its Cincinnati market. Cincinnati Bell provides a wide range of telecommunications products and services to residential and business customers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. Broadwing Inc. is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. For more information, visit www.broadwing.com.