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LOGO - MFN                                                          EXHIBIT 99.1

                                  NEWS RELEASE
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Corporate Headquarters          360 Hamilton Avenue       White Plains, NY 10601
                     914.421.6700               www.mfn.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

                         METROMEDIA FIBER NETWORK, INC.
                   ANNOUNCES PRELIMINARY RESTATEMENTS FOR 2001

                   Company Issues Preliminary Results for 2001


New York, April 23, 2002 - Metromedia Fiber Network, Inc. (MFN) (NASDAQ: MFNXE),
the leading provider of digital communications infrastructure, announced today
preliminary restatements of its previously reported results for the first three
quarters of 2001 and preliminary results for the fourth quarter and year-ended
December 31, 2001.

As previously announced, the filing of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K
for the year ended December 31, 2001 with the Securities and Exchange Commission
was delayed beyond the intended filing date of April 16, 2002, which was the
extended due date for the filing of the report pursuant to SEC rules. As also
previously announced, the Company is reexamining its reported operating results
for each of the quarterly periods included in the fiscal year ended December 31,
2001 with the assistance of KPMG LLP, who was appointed as MFN 's auditors
effective December 2001, and as a result, the Company expects to restate its
quarterly results for each of the first three quarters of the fiscal year ended
December 31, 2001. These restatements involved revenue/sales credit recognition,
timing of expense recognition and non-cash lease accounting and purchase
accounting issues.

The following table sets forth previously reported unaudited financial results
compared to a preliminary range of restated unaudited financial results for the
first, second and third quarters of 2001 (data in $millions).



                                                                     Three Months Ended
                                       March 31, 2001                  June 30, 2001                September 30, 2001
                               -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               Previously       Range of       Previously       Range of       Previously       Range of
                                Reported    Restated Results    Reported    Restated Results    Reported    Restated Results
                               -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                           
Revenue                           77.0         75.0 - 77.0        91.7         79.0 - 81.0        91.5        86.0 - 89.0
Loss from operations,
   excl. impairment charge       (134.8)    (137.0) - (143.0)   (154.5)     (171.0) - (178.0)   (178.6)    (205.0) - (213.0)
Impairment charge                   -               -              -                -              -               -
Net loss                         (148.3)    (150.0) - (156.0)   (205.2)     (222.0) - (230.0)   (242.1)    (268.0) - (277.0)



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The following table sets forth reported financial results for the three months
(unaudited) and year ended December 31, 2000 compared to a preliminary range of
unaudited financial results for the three months and year ended December 31,
2001 (data in $million).



                                        Three Months Ended                         Year Ended
                                           December 31,                           December 31,
                               -------------------------------------  -------------------------------------
                               -------------------- ----------------  --------------------- ---------------
                                      2001               2000                 2001               2000
                               -------------------- ----------------  --------------------- ---------------
                                                                                     
Revenue                              83 - 89              61               323 - 336             188
Loss from operations,
  excl. impairment charge         (298) - (308)          (108)           (811) - (842)          (329)
Impairment charge               (3,900) - (4,300)          -           (3,900) - (4,300)          -
Net loss                        (4,250) - (4,700)        (135)         (4,889) - (5,363)        (407)



The Company reiterated that the foregoing financial results are preliminary and
may be subject to additional changes.

MFN also announced today that it received a letter from Nasdaq indicating that
the Company's securities are subject to delisting from the Nasdaq Stock Market
because MFN failed to file with the Securities Exchange Commission its Annual
Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2001 as required pursuant to
Marketplace Rule 4319(c)(14). As permitted by the Nasdaq rules, MFN has
requested a hearing before a Nasdaq Listing Qualification Panel to review this
decision. The hearing request will stay the delisting of the Company's
securities pending the Panel's decision. In addition, MFN was previously
notified by Nasdaq that if the trading price per share of its securities failed
to equal or exceed One Dollar ($1.00) for 10 consecutive days by May 15, 2002,
the Company's securities could be delisted, again, subject to a prior Panel
hearing.

METROMEDIA FIBER NETWORK, INC.

MFN is the leading provider of digital communications infrastructure solutions.
The Company combines the most extensive metropolitan area fiber network with a
global optical IP network, state-of-the-art data centers, award-winning managed
services and extensive peering relationships to deliver fully integrated,
outsourced communications solutions to Global 2000 companies. The all-fiber
infrastructure enables MFN customers to share vast amounts of information
internally and externally over private networks and a global IP backbone,
creating collaborative businesses that communicate at the speed of light.

Customers can take advantage of MFN's complete, end-to-end solution or select
individual components to complement their existing infrastructures. By leasing
MFN's metropolitan and regional fiber, customers can create their own, private
optical network with virtually unlimited, un-metered bandwidth at a fixed fee.
For more reliable, secure and high-performance Internet connectivity, customers
can use MFN's private IP network to communicate globally without ever touching
the public-switched network. Moreover, MFN's comprehensive managed services
enable companies to create a world-class Internet presence, optimize complex
sites and private optical networks, and transform legacy applications, all with
a single point of contact.

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PAIX.net, Inc., a subsidiary of MFN and the original neutral Internet exchange,
offers secure, Class A co-location facilities where ISPs and other
Internet-centric companies can form public and private peering relationships
with each other, and have access to multiple telecommunications carriers for
circuits within each facility.

One network. One infrastructure. One source.

For more information on MFN, please visit our Web site at

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties. Factors that could cause or contribute to such risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business
conditions, competition, changes in technology and methods of marketing,
availability of financing, execution risk relating to the transaction described
herein and various other factors beyond the Company's control. This also
includes such factors as are described from time to time in the SEC reports
filed by Metromedia Fiber Network, including the most recently filed Forms S-3,
10-K and 10-Q.

MEDIA RELATIONS:                    INVESTOR RELATIONS:
Kara Carbone                        Martin Cohen
Metromedia Fiber Network            212-606-4389
212-803-5596
kcarbone@mfn.com