Frost & Sullivan Ranks CenturyLink’s Retail Mid-Band Ethernet Portfolio as Best in the Industry

MONROE, La., June 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE:CTL, news, filings) has received the 2012 “Customer Value Enhancement Award in Retail Mid-Band Ethernet (MBE) Services” from Frost & Sullivan, a business research and consulting firm. The award, based on Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices research, recognizes CenturyLink’s MBE services, including the growth of its market coverage and product portfolio.

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According to Frost & Sullivan, CenturyLink was selected over its competitors for its successful deployment of fiber and copper-based MBE services to small and large businesses. The research also credits CenturyLink’s mergers with Qwest and Savvis for creating an advanced fiber-optic network and expanded mix of services, including IT/cloud capabilities, which greatly enhance the company’s MBE offerings.

“Frost & Sullivan’s recent research shows that with completion of the Qwest and Savvis mergers in 2011, CenturyLink significantly increased its competitiveness through expanded capabilities, product portfolio and geographical reach,” said Charles Carr, senior industry analyst, Frost & Sullivan. “The combined network strategically positions the company to up-sell its expanded portfolio of value-add and hosted IT/cloud-based services to MBE customers. CenturyLink’s MBE services are an excellent fit with market needs, enhancing value for its customer base and differentiating itself from the leading service providers in the market.”

The Frost & Sullivan Award for Customer Value Enhancement is presented each year to the company that demonstrates excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers. This award recognizes the company’s inordinate focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, leading to improved customer retention and customer base expansion.

“We are honored to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan for our efforts to expand our portfolio of mid-band Ethernet services,” said Jeff Painting, CenturyLink president of business sales and care. “We continue to put great emphasis on our Ethernet offerings to ensure that we have the right mix of solutions that can help improve our customers’ connectivity and productivity.”

Frost & Sullivan defines MBE services as symmetrical Ethernet services with bandwidth speeds between 2 Mbps and 50 Mbps and delivered primarily over copper or a hybrid fiber/copper infrastructure.

CenturyLink will be honored during Frost & Sullivan’s Excellence in Best Practices Awards Banquet held in Boston in July.

About CenturyLink
CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States. The company provides broadband, voice, wireless and managed services to consumers and businesses across the country. It also offers advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink™ Prism™ TV and DIRECTV brands. In addition, the company provides data, voice and managed services to enterprise, government and wholesale customers in local, national and select international markets through its high-quality advanced fiber optic network and multiple data centers. CenturyLink is recognized as a leader in the network services market by key technology industry analyst firms, and is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises through Savvis, a CenturyLink company. CenturyLink’s customers range from Fortune 500 companies in some of the country’s largest cities to families living in rural America. Headquartered in Monroe, La., CenturyLink is an S&P 500 company and is included among the Fortune 500 list of America’s largest corporations. For more information, visit www.centurylink.com.

SOURCE CenturyLink, Inc.