PORTLAND, Ore. -- Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q - News) announced today that the self-healing fiber ring connecting Southern Oregon communities served by Qwest is now completed and fully operational. The southern ring -- the first of five fiber rings currently under construction in the state of Oregon -- is the first rural ring built by Qwest. When completed, the Oregon rings will be the largest fiber rings ever deployed by Qwest. "The completion of the fiber loop for Southern Oregon is a critical piece of the infrastructure that has been needed for our region. The route redundancy created by this loop will provide us with a self-healing fiber link to areas outside of our region," said Gordon Safley, executive director of Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. (SO-REDI). The first self-healing fiber ring connects southern Oregon through Eugene, Roseburg, Grants Pass, Medford, Klamath Falls, Oakridge and back to Eugene. The additional self-healing rings are being established in eastern and central Oregon, as well as in the mid-Willamette Valley and along the north and central Oregon coast. With the completion of these rings, a Qwest intelligent network will be able to instantly reroute voice and data traffic in the event that a cable is cut or service is otherwise interrupted. Individual communities on the fiber rings will no longer be isolated from the rest of the state if an interruption in service occurs. The ring underwent an unexpected test late last week when an independent construction worker cut a Qwest fiber-optic cable. Thousands of customers in southern Oregon would have experienced an eight-hour service outage if the cut occurred prior to the completion of the ring. Instead, the outage went entirely unnoticed by customers. "The ring performed as expected and customers were not impacted by this major fiber cut," said Peppler. "The traffic on the fiber was re-routed within 50 milliseconds to a new redundant path." Qwest Communications International Inc.