Qwest gets re-energized

With an extension of a contract with Qwest, the Energy Sciences Network will have bandwidth of 2.56 gigabits per second for the laboratories at Oak Ridge and Brookhaven.

The Energy Department has extended a contract with Qwest Communications International Inc. to provide network connectivity for the Energy Sciences Network, or ESnet. Under the new extension, Qwest's team has increased bandwidth to 2.56 gigabits/second at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn., and is working on doing the same at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.

The contract extension brings the value of the seven-year contract from $50 million to $87.5 million, according to Qwest officials. The company won the contract in 1999.

Officials at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif., manage ESnet. The network connects more than 35 of the department's research sites.

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