Broadwing Wins Private Line Contract

AUSTIN, Texas -- Today Broadwing Communications, LLC (Broadwing), a consolidated subsidiary of Broadwing Corporation (NASDAQ: BWNG), announced that Big Lots, the nation’s largest broadline closeout retailer, has selected the award winning, Broadwing MultiConnect Private Line service to interconnect Big Lots locations nationwide via high performance, multimedia-capable broadband connections.

With annual revenues exceeding $4 billion, Big Lots operates more than 1,500 retail stores serving 46 states. Five regional distribution centers throughout the country provide the company’s stores with brand-name products from more than 3,000 manufacturers. The company also operates a wholesale division and online business-to-business wholesale Web site.

Broadwing MultiConnect provides Big Lots with the networking capabilities of private line coupled with the flexibility to seamlessly connect nationwide locations; all at an affordable, flat monthly rate. This fixed-bandwidth, wide area network (WAN) solution enables Big Lots to deliver DS1 (1.54 Megabit-per-second) private lines to each location from a single originating DS3 (45-Mbps) hub on Broadwing’s all-optical network.

“Broadwing offers a competitive product that in the end will reduce our monthly expenses drastically,” said Rick Fannin, VP technology and data services for Big Lots. “Their product fits our communications, security and privacy strategies making them the right choice for Big Lots.”

Broadwing Corp.