SALT LAKE CITY – The State of Utah chose Qwest Communications International Inc. to deliver a cost-saving, converged voice and data network. With Qwest’s Ethernet solution, state and local government and businesses in Utah have access to additional bandwidth speeds to help satisfy increasing public demand for online services.

KEY FACTS

• Qwest began connecting 300 locations in Salt Lake City and along Utah’s Wasatch Front using Qwest’s Metro Optical Ethernet data networking platform. Thirty government sites have already been connected as part of the 3-year, $7.2 million agreement.
• The Qwest-designed solution leverages the power of Ethernet and optical technologies across metro area networks. The result is low-cost, scalable and secure bandwidth. Ethernet provides local area network (LAN-to-LAN) connectivity between two or more customer locations within a metro area and is suitable for a wide variety of applications.
• With speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps) to each site, Qwest’s network supports a number of bandwidth-intensive activities.
• In 2008, Utah used the network to process more than 10 million online transactions, including 49,053 driver’s licenses, 776,894 vehicle renewals and 90 percent of business license renewals.
• In addition to delivering bandwidth today, the network has the scalability to meet projected demand for online services.