GlobeSystem Deployment On Schedule; Major Progress Achieved in 9 Months - Company Operations

Cambridge Telcom Report, Feb 28, 2000

Teleglobe Tuesday announced that major progress has been made on the deployment of its US$5 billion GlobeSystem network in the nine months since its launch last May.

As Teleglobe continues to deliver value-added broadband services to customers around the world, the company has made numerous advancements in expanding the global reach, capacity and speed of GlobeSystem, built upon Teleglobe's existing worldwide fiber optic and satellite network.

In addition, Teleglobe announced that it has reached a multimillion dollar agreement with RSL Communications, Ltd. (Nasdaq: RSLC) in which Teleglobe will provide RSL COM with optical wavelength capacity and network services on its Pan-European routes.

The announcement was made at Comptel's annual trade show and conference.

"Teleglobe already has the bandwidth, capacity, global reach and in-country presence with our GlobeSystem network, and we are delivering on our promise to create substantially more," said Paolo Guidi, chief executive officer, Teleglobe.

"In less than a year, Teleglobe has made remarkable progress as we continue to strengthen our position as a leading provider of global broadband services. We are proud that carriers such as RSL have been receptive to our GlobeSystem strategy."

GlobeSystem Progress

In the last nine months, advancements in the deployment of GlobeSystem include:

-- the acquisition of 232,000 route kilometers (kms) of terrestrial and submarine fiber in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Investments include ownership in Latin America's Americas II, Maya 1 and Pan American cable systems; a dark fiber pair (400 Gbit/s) in the new FLAG Atlantic-1 transatlantic cable system, and; founding investor status in the new Australia-Japan, APCN-2 and China-US cable systems.

-- the activation of European and North American routes using advanced dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technology, enabling each fiber to transmit up to 400 Gbit/s of capacity or 40 wavelengths at 10 Gbit/s (OC-192).

Teleglobe activated the European ring of its GlobeSystem network, linking 15 major European cities to its global broadband network, as well as high speed links between Vancouver and Seattle.

-- the launch of Internet, data, optical wavelength and voice services on its new 22,400 km U.S. network. Teleglobe offers end-to-end broadband services between major business centers in North America, Europe and Asia. The transcontinental U.S. dark fiber will be lit in the second quarter of 2000.

Teleglobe provides Internet Service Providers, content providers and carriers high-speed bandwidth connectivity services (such as wavelengths, STM-1s) on a continent-to-continent basis.

-- the deployment of Data Centers in London, New York and Toronto. Teleglobe will open additional European, North American and Asian Data Centers as Teleglobe continues the deployment of its GlobeSystem network expansion. Internet content and services customers currently colocate at Teleglobe's Internet access sites in London, Los Angeles, Manchester (U.K.), New York City, Palo Alto (U.S.), Sao Paulo, Toronto and Vancouver.

Customers receive a direct, undisrupted connection to Teleglobe's global Internet backbone network - connecting to over 100 countries Customers include Akamai Technologies, America Online, Digital Island Inc., iBEAM Broadcasting, InterVu Inc., ITV.net, RealNetworks, Singapore Telecom, StarMedia Networks, Telecom Italia, Telefonica (NYSE: TEF), and Tucows.com;

-- the opening of GlobeCity network access sites in more than 30 cities around the world, all of which are integrated into Teleglobe's existing worldwide network. More than 50 GlobeCity sites will be in operation by year-end 2000, while 160 access sites will be operational upon completion of the GlobeSystem deployment;

-- a $16 million investment in the deployment of four new antennas in the Caribbean and Latin America together with the expansion of its North American backbone antennas.

Necessitated by the unprecedented growth of Teleglobe's Internet backbone access business, Teleglobe is building upon its base of 44 antennas by deploying new antennas in Argentina, Brazil, Panama and Puerto Rico which will be operational by the middle of 2000. The World Teleport Association recently chose Teleglobe as the winner of its annual Teleport Operator of the Year award;

-- the upgrade of its North American Internet backbone network from OC-3 to OC-12 status. Teleglobe also is upgrading its Internet backbone to OC-48 status, confirming Teleglobe's position as one of the world's leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Teleglobe's global Internet backbone now connects more countries to North America than any other network in the world, with 102 countries connected. Teleglobe also operates a total of 23 local Internet access nodes in 11 countries worldwide. The company established new Internet access nodes in five cities in the past nine months, including Copenhagen, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo and Vienna;