-- Increased demand fuels plans for more than 180,000 square feet of additional space, new data centers in Minneapolis, Phoenix and Toronto

MONROE, Louisiana, March 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- CenturyLink, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) today announced further investment in its hosting capabilities with plans to expand its global data center presence in eight markets during 2014.

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The opening of three new data centers in North America, paired with expansions to five existing CenturyLink data centers, responds to global demand for secure cloud, colocation and managed services, particularly in regions with a strong CenturyLink network presence. These plans follow recent news that the company will also invest in expanding its CenturyLink Cloud network of public cloud data centers.

"CenturyLink is committed to investing in world-class infrastructure to meet growing demand for access to comprehensive and secure technology solutions that power business transformation," said Jeff Von Deylen, president, CenturyLink Technology Solutions. "By adding capacity in these key locations, we position ourselves firmly for delivering the advanced network, hosting and IT services that organizations depend on to compete in the global economy."

The new builds and expansions will offer more than 180,000 square feet of additional space to CenturyLink's global presence:

• Phoenix (new data center sites, in partnership with IO, opened in January 2014)
• Weehawken, N.J. (expansion completed in March 2014)
• Minneapolis (new data center site opening in May 2014)
• Sterling, Va. (expansion completing in May 2014)
• Irvine, Calif. (expansion completing in June 2014)
• Toronto (new data center site opening in Q3 2014)
• Reading, England (expansion completing in Q3 2014)
• Chicago (expansion completing in Q3 2014)

These expansions will bring more than 20 megawatts of additional power to CenturyLink's total data center footprint, enabling businesses like the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to add points of presence in locations most strategic for their operations.

"We are pleased to see CenturyLink expanding capacity in Weehawken, which serves as an excellent venue for the global financial industry with its proximity to trading markets," said Curt Schumacher, chief technology officer at CBOE. "We added a point of presence in this key data center, which features a vibrant ecosystem and secure network solutions, to supply subscribing firms with competitive markets data over low-latency trading connections."

Weehawken is one of more than 55 data centers CenturyLink operates, with more than 2.5 million square feet of gross raised floor space throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The company, ranked by Synergy Research and Frost & Sullivan as the second-largest retail colocation provider in the United States, offers robust colocation, cloud and managed services across its footprint of data centers powered by an advanced fiber network, high-availability SLAs and Uptime Institute Tier III-certified facilities.

"IT leaders tell us the road to cloud often starts in an outsourced data center," said David Meredith, senior vice president and general manager for CenturyLink Technology Solutions. "With this global rollout, we're on an ambitious course to deliver carrier diversity, interconnectivity and managed hybrid services at pace with the market's appetite for access to flexible and secure IT infrastructure."

About CenturyLink Technology Solutions
CenturyLink Technology Solutions delivers innovative managed services for global businesses on virtual, dedicated and colocation platforms. For more information, visit www.centurylink.com/technology.

About CenturyLink
CenturyLink is the third largest telecommunications company in the United States and is recognized as a leader in the network services market by technology industry analyst firms. The company is a global leader in cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprise customers. CenturyLink provides data, voice and managed services in local, national and select international markets through its high-quality advanced fiber optic network and multiple data centers for businesses and consumers. The company also offers advanced entertainment services under the CenturyLink^® Prism™ TV and DIRECTV brands. 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.