January 29, 2002 -- Qwest Communications International Inc. announced that it is withdrawing its plans to share private customer account information among different divisions in the company. Citing customer concerns, the company said a decision on when and how it might share information within Qwest would be made after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has an opportunity to issue new rules, expected later this year.

According to Qwest, it is the first company in the telecom industry to announce that it will not share private customer account information inside its company until the FCC has had an opportunity to issue new rules on the process. Qwest says it intends to notify its approximately 12 million local-service customers to explain that the company has withdrawn its plans to share private customer account information within the company.

Qwest had notified its customers last December and in early January that it intended to begin sharing private customer account information among different divisions in the company to design and offer new or different services to its customers in the future.

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