Denver--Qwest Communications International Inc. has won a new multimillion-dollar agreement from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Eagan, Minn., for high-end data networking services. The contract, worth approximately $3 million over three years, enables Blue Cross to set up a redundant network to support the company in the event of a disaster or an outage on its primary network.Qwest will provide metro optical Ethernet services of bandwidth up to 100 Mbps, and 20 private routed networks between Blue Cross's offices and a state-of-the-art Qwest CyberCenter. Also, Blue Cross will install dedicated iQ Networking ports at three sites using bandwidth up to OC-192.
"This is an extensive, strategic project for Blue Cross that will give us business continuity in the event of a disaster," says Mike McKuras, vice president of technology infrastructure services, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. "Qwest is our strategic partner for this effort because they were able to offer us the significant high-speed bandwidth to make this project work and because they understood our needs and developed a specialized plan to help us."
"We've been working with Blue Cross since 1996," says Thomas Richards, executive vice president, business markets group for Qwest. "We are thrilled to have expanded our relationship and been chosen to deliver the massive data networking infrastructure to support this customer's business plan."
Source: Quest Communications International Inc.
