How has Qwest support of Abilene been affected by Qwest growth as a corporation?
A. Qwest enthusiastically committed to support of Abilene and Internet2®, as announced at a White House ceremony in April 1998. Part of the Qwest network was contributed as the platform for universities to further technological innovation of the Internet. In September 1998, the first portion of the high performance Abilene network was operational and demonstrated at the Internet2 Members Meeting in San Francisco. Then in February 1999, the Abilene backbone launched full, nationwide production operations, with 37 universities connected. Since then, participation in Abilene has grown beyond the original expectations of Internet2, with nearly 200 universities across the U.S. utilizing Abilene today. During this same period, Qwest has also grown enormously. Through all our growth and expansion, Qwest has continued to ensure that Abilene could operate and grow to support it’s mission. When Qwest merged with U S WEST in June 2000, we could not longer provide interLATA services in some states
