Global Crossing Advances South American Crossing; Alcatel Will Supply Advanced Ring System; IMPSAT Will Provide Trans-Andean Section - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, August 23, 1999

Global Crossing Ltd. (Nasdaq: GBLX), which is building and operating the world's most advanced global IP-based fiber optic network, Tuesday announced agreements with Alcatel of France (NYSE: ALA) and IMPSAT of Argentina directed at the rapid completion of Global Crossing's extension of its Global Crossing Network to South America's major cities. Under the agreement with Alcatel, Global Crossing's marine division, Global Marine Systems Limited, will have an option to provide marine operations and a guarantee from Alcatel of $100 million in contracts over the next five years.

"We are very pleased to announce these agreements with Alcatel and IMPSAT," said Bob Annunziata, Global Crossing's Chief Executive Officer. "These contracts are important steps for Global Crossing toward fulfilling our commitment to build out this critical part of our global network. These new partnerships keep our South American Crossing system on schedule towards its goal of giving businesses and consumers in Latin America's largest cities assured access to worldwide broadband communications."

Under an agreement valued at approximately $700 million, Alcatel will design, manufacture, and install the South American Crossing (SAC) system, making use of the most advanced dense wave division multiplexing fiber optic technology available. The Alcatel agreement replaces another contract which had earlier been awarded to build the undersea system. Global Marine Systems will provide marine support to Alcatel on a ship-availability basis and has received a five-year commitment of $100 million in contracting from Alcatel that would include any subcontracting work awarded during the construction of SAC.

Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) has been selected to supply its optical networking equipment for the terrestrial portion of the project. Lucent will provide its 80-channel WaveStar OLS 400G dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) systems and the WaveStar BandWidth Manager. Global Crossing also intends to use Lucent's TrueWave RS (reduced slope) optical fiber in building the terrestrial portion of the network.

It was also announced Tuesday that IMPSAT Corporation of Argentina has agreed to provide infrastructure for the trans-Andean terrestrial link of SAC. IMPSAT Corporation is a provider of data transmission and private telecommunications network services in Latin America. Global Crossing will further team with IMPSAT for the construction and provisioning of backhaul networks in all countries connected to Global Crossing's South American Crossing system and in Venezuela (which will connect in May 2000 to the worldwide network through Global Crossing's Pan American Crossing system).

IMPSAT will also buy a minimum of $46 million in capacity on the Global Crossing Network. In addition, Global Crossing and IMPSAT will enter into a non-exclusive co-marketing agreement that will combine the Pan American distribution network of IMPSAT with the Global Crossing Network.

The trans-Andean section will form the southernmost perimeter of SAC, connecting the SAC system between Las Toninas, Argentina on the Atlantic Coast and Valparaiso, Chile on the Pacific. As it crosses the continent, the system will pass through Buenos Aires, Rosario, Cordoba, and Mendoza in Argentina and Santiago in Chile.

In addition, under the terms of the agreement, IMPSAT will provide terrestrial connections linking coastal landing points of SAC to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Caracas in Venezuela, Bogota in Colombia, and Lima in Peru. The agreement also provides for IMPSAT to provide Global Crossing with a series of South American telehouses. The trans-Andean section, backhauls and telehouses will be ready for initial service by the final quarter of 2000, with the full system in operation by first quarter 2001.

Via the new telehouses, Global Crossing's customers will have access to other South American cities not included in the SAC system and to IMPSAT's recently announced fiber optic broadband transport and local distribution systems throughout the continent. The first segments of IMPSAT's broadband network in Argentina and Brazil are expected to be in service by mid-2000 and will cover 10 main cities and more than 40 intermediate cities in these countries. The agreement further provides for IMPSAT to maintain the trans- Andean section and terrestrial backhauls.

South American Crossing, Global Crossing's 18,000 kilometer cable system, will be installed in three phases, with the full ring system targeted for

completion by April 2001. The system is comprised of numerous undersea segments as well as the trans-Andean terrestrial link, forming a robust, self- healing ring system that encircles the South American continent.

Global Crossing is building and operating the world's most advanced global IP-based datacentric network, an end-to-end fiber optic platform for data, voice, video and Internet transmissions. The Global Crossing Network will span five continents and address 80% of the world's international traffic. A new unit of Global Crossing, Global Marine Systems Limited, possesses the largest flotilla of cable laying and maintenance vessels in the world and currently services more than a third of the world's undersea cable kilometers. Global Crossing's operations are headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda, with executive offices in Los Angeles.