MCI Begins Trading Again On The NASDAQ Stock Market

Product rollouts, new customer wins demonstrate momentum in execution of business plan

ASHBURN, Va., July 14, 2004 - MCI, Inc., (NASDAQ: MCIP) today began trading its stock on The NASDAQ Stock Market, the final milestone of one of the largest corporate turnarounds in history. MCI stock will trade on The NASDAQ National Market under the new symbol "MCIP," which reflects MCI's Internet Protocol (IP) heritage.

"Our employees selected MCIP as our new ticker symbol to reflect MCI's leadership as a global IP provider," said Michael Capellas, MCI president and chief executive officer. "With the same employee dedication and determination that brought us here today, MCI is now focused on our future, on serving our customers and leading the industry to the next generation of integrated communications."

"MCI is a global communications leader, and we are honored to welcome them back to The NASDAQ Stock Market," said Bob Greifeld, president and chief executive officer of NASDAQ. "As our long-standing technology and business partner, MCI embodies the innovative leadership of NASDAQ listed companies. For over 10 years, MCI's financial extranet has been the underlying platform for NASDAQ's advanced electronic stock market, reporting billions of shares each day for the financial community."

Positioned for the Shift to IP

MCI's return to the NASDAQ comes as the company continues to make significant progress on its business plan. Over the past three months, MCI has:

• Signed approximately $1 billion in new corporate contracts, including today's announcement of a five-year, $125 million agreement with HP to deliver advanced communications services and become one of HP's selected communications providers;
• Reduced its cost structure, with a focus on profitability; and
• Extended its leadership in the IP space, announcing several new products, partnerships and investments, such as:
  • Rolling out an expanded suite of new managed security services and entering into a security partnership with VeriSign;
  • Launching the next generation of Web conferencing services via a strategic agreement with Microsoft;
  • Expanding MCI Advantage capabilities to enhance its industry-leading VoIP solution for businesses;
  • Bringing together its public and private IP networks to offer companies a simple transition from traditional data services to advanced IP application services;
  • Tripling its DSL broadband footprint for business customers through an extended relationship with New Edge Networks;
  • Introducing a "first-of-its-kind" On-Demand Application Service, demonstrating the power of converged networking and computing;
  • Expanding its portfolio of Global Hosting Products through acquisition of Digex; and
  • Demonstrating the world's fastest IP-network connection and deploying next-generation infrastructure through its Ultra Long Haul Network design.

About MCI

MCI, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCIP) is a leading global communications provider, delivering innovative, cost-effective, advanced communications connectivity to businesses, governments and consumers. With the industry's most expansive global IP backbone, based on the number of company-owned points of presence, and wholly-owned data networks, MCI develops the converged communications products and services that are the foundation for commerce and communications in today's market. For more information, go to www.mci.com.

# # #

Note: The market open ceremony is available from 9:20 a.m. to 9:35 a.m. on Galaxy 4R C/transponder 21. The downlink frequency is 4120 horizontal audio: 6.2/6.8. The feed can also be found on Waterfront fiber 1623. The Market Open also can be viewed through the NASDAQ webcam at: http://www.nasdaq.com/reference/marketsite_about.stm

General MCI B-Roll footage is available on Wednesday, July 14 from 6 a.m. to 6:30 a.m.; 8 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.; 10 to 10:30 a.m. at AMC 9/Transponder 17; Polarity: Vertical; Downlink Frequency: 12040.00; L-Band: 1290.000