Cable & Wireless Announces New Web Hosting Service for Small to Medium-Sized Business - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, May 15, 2000

Cable & Wireless (NYSE: CWP), the global telecommunications group, Tuesday announced at Networld Interop it has expanded its portfolio of web hosting solutions with the addition of Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting, which combines web hosting and e-commerce solutions to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting enables businesses to quickly build customized web sites with e-commerce functionality and is designed to allow businesses to enhance their web sites and e-commerce capabilities as their business grows.

"Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting gives small and medium-sized companies the ability to bring their business to the web quickly and is a scalable platform that enables them to become more sophisticated as their online business grows," said Art Medici, senior vice president of Marketing at Cable & Wireless North America. "What's more, these businesses also have access to our portfolio of Internet services beyond web hosting to help them level the playing field with larger competitors."

With Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting, companies can choose from five web-hosting packages and three e-commerce packages, each designed to create and maintain web sites at different levels of sophistication. Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting is now available in the United States and starts at $24.95 a month and goes up to $375 per month. Companies outside the U.S. can also use Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting to establish a web site within the US-based network. Cable & Wireless also plans to make shared web hosting services available worldwide in the future. Build It And They Will Come

Businesses can order Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting online at www.cwusa.com. With the assistance of online tours and forms, companies simply choose the plan that suits their needs, select a domain name, and the site is ready to upload content in minutes. As businesses need to become more sophisticated, they can easily go online and upgrade their web sites to include more site and e-commerce functionality. In addition, the new service provides an easy way for businesses to migrate to Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting from other hosting providers' services. Features

Each hosting plan accommodates domain names, 24x7 customer support, custom CGIs, a CGI library, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption, web site authoring tools, file recovery, FTP access, web site reporting and search engine registration. The scalable hosting plans vary by the amount of email accounts, disk space, and traffic they support. The three e-commerce plans allow customers to conduct online business, and can be easily upgraded. One e-commerce plan includes CyberCash for payment processing options.

Cable & Wireless Shared Web Hosting is the easiest way for companies to build a web presence with all the features needed to create a web site with the highest level of sophistication:-- Site templates - 25 pre-built web site templates to help with site layout and provide professional-looking site design, graphics and photos for companies to start building their site immediately. -- Online user control panel - businesses can view, edit and publish their web site from the convenience of their workplace. -- Enhanced Solutions Provider (esp) Program - the Cable & Wireless esp program gives businesses access to a list of recommended web designers and integrators every time they access their sites' control panel. -- Scalable upgrade capabilities - businesses can upgrade their hosting plan online as needed, without having to rebuild the site. -- Quality assurance - Unique web architecture allows for 99.9% site availability.

Businesses that use Cable & Wireless Shared Hosting also have access to Cable & Wireless' full suite of Internet communications services for small and medium-sized businesses, including sDSL, dial-up and dedicated Internet Access, Toll-Free services, and more to help them grow. And as their business, web site and Internet applications expand, Cable & Wireless can continue to help them grow by offering higher capacity Internet access, corporate networking and Cable & Wireless' more advanced Managed Web Hosting Solutions.

Cable & Wireless is one of the world's leading Web hosting companies, supporting more than 3,500 URLs, including many of the world's most widely recognized companies on the Web - sites that receive as many as 3 million to 20 million page views per day. Currently, Cable & Wireless supports 3 of the top 5 news and information Web sites; 3 of the top 5 marketing and corporate Web sites; and 2 of the top 5 shopping Web sites.

With customers in 70 countries, Cable & Wireless is a major global telecommunications business with revenue of around $14 billion annual revenues and over 50,000 employees. Its businesses around the world offer a range of services spanning broadband data and Internet services, fixed and mobile voice, as well as interactive entertainment and information. Cable & Wireless' priority for expansion is the fast growing market of data and IP (Internet Protocol) services for business customers. Since November 1998, it has announced major investments in advanced networks in the US and Europe, the restructuring of Cable & Wireless Communications in the UK and has acquired full control of Cable & Wireless IDC in Japan to support this strategy. Cable & Wireless now holds a unique position in terms of global coverage and services to business customers.