Nantucket Airport Chooses MCI to Improve Air Traffic Control

New Solution Enables Airport to Maintain Communications Despite Inclement Weather

ASHBURN, Va., November 1, 2004 - MCI, Inc. (NASDAQ: MCIP) today announced it has implemented a highly-reliable, diverse connectivity solution at Nantucket Memorial Airport (ACK) to increase the dependability of data and voice communications between Air Traffic Controllers and aircraft pilots. By teaming with Nantucket Electric and NEES Communications, Inc (NEESCom), MCI implemented a fiber connection between the Federal Aviation Administration's Nantucket Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) and the Otis-Falmouth Terminal Route Approach Control (TRACON) facility on the Massachusetts mainland, allowing the airport to remain open during inclement weather.

"The implementation of a fiber optic path and MCI circuits between Nantucket and the mainland has been achieved," Steve Wojcicki, FAA New England Region (ANE) Telecommunications Services Management (TSM) Manager, said. "This unique solution is a tribute to the excellent cooperation of all parties involved, MCI, Air Traffic and Technical Ops. By moving our data and voice communications to a fiber connection within the FAA network, we are able to continue providing radar data and control communications between Nantucket Island and the mainland during stormy weather when communications with aircraft and display of processed radar data at the Otis-Falmouth TRACON and the Nantucket Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) are crucial. This new connectivity solution is not susceptible to interruption during difficult weather conditions as the previous microwave connectivity was."

The Nantucket Memorial Airport is the second busiest airport in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with more than 500,000 passengers arriving and departing annually. Due to the remote location of the airport, MCI designed and contracted a customized solution for the FAA that utilizes underwater, "dark" fiber from Nantucket Electric, a subsidiary of National Grid Corporation and NEESCom, owned by Gridcom, a division of National Grid Transco.

The MCI solution provides the FAA with a connectivity design that is more reliable than the existing microwave communications radios, which are affected by inclement weather. In 2003, Nantucket Memorial Airport experienced more than 20 hours of communications outages on the microwave network, which have caused suspension of airport traffic in some cases.

MCI's solution will result in a significant increase beyond contract performance requirements to the FAA's network availability between Nantucket and the mainland, where MCI provides an average backbone availability of 99.9999 percent. With the new fiber system and MCI switching in place, pilots can confidently rely on both voice and data communications from land-based air traffic controllers to approach or depart the airspace when the weather is bad.

"Because tourism is a key revenue source for the Nantucket area, the airport's ability to maintain communications, remain open and receive flights, despite the weather, is important to the overall community and its economy," said Jerry Edgerton, senior vice president MCI Government Markets. "By leveraging our data and networking capabilities, MCI was able to overcome the connectivity obstacles the Nantucket Airport faced and transition air traffic controllers to a highly-reliable, redundant solution that enables flights to land even in foggy weather."

The use of fiber enables Nantucket Airport to have diverse connectivity to the FAA's Leased Inter-facility National Airspace Communications System (LINCS) network. LINCS, one of the most reliable private networks in the world, supports secure voice and data services to more than 5,000 air traffic control and military sites in the continental United States, Alaska and Puerto Rico. MCI has been the network provider for LINCS since 1992.

About Nantucket Electric
Nantucket Electric serves approximately 10,000 customers on the island community of Nantucket and is an electricity distribution subsidiary of National Grid.

About NEESCom
NEESCom, owned by Gridcom, a division of National Grid Transco (NGT) of the United Kingdom, has an extensive dark fiber network and carrier class facilities throughout the Northeast. Gridcom is a telecommunications infrastructure company that provides wireless and fiber solutions to communications companies, government, and private industry. NGT is the fourth largest utility in the world with more than $46 billion in enterprise value. Gridcom is headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts.

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.